DMK cadres say Senthilbalaji’s shift cost it dear in Karur

Karur: Election outcomes in several districts have come as a setback for DMK this time. In Karur, the party managed to win only two seats, while TVK and AIADMK bagged one each. Though TVK lost in three constituencies, it ensured a neck-and-neck contest, keeping the two Dravidian majors on their toes. In a district like Karur, where local strongman V Senthilbalaji wields influence, many DMK cadres have been left stunned. They believe the result would have been different had the former minister not chosen to move to Coimbatore South, where he only scraped through to victory.In Karur constituency, where Senthilbalaji had contested last time, former AIADMK minister M R Vijayabhaskar came out on top, albeit with a very narrow margin. DMK's M Thiagarajan was handpicked by Senthilbalaji. DMK cadres had believed that the former minister's choice could replicate a result similar to Aravakurichi in 2021, where his nominee defeated former BJP state president K Annamalai. However, the AIADMK candidate won while the DMK candidate slipped to third place, despite Senthilbalaji's brother— referred to as ‘Chinavar'—overseeing the campaign.For AIADMK's Vijayabhaskar, it was no cakewalk either. Towards the end of counting, TVK candidate V P Mathiyalagan came close, with 1,821 votes separating them. A similar trend was seen in Kulithalai, where DMK candidate Suriyanur A Chandran came out on top only in the last two rounds, winning by just 579 votes against TVK's G Balasubramani. In Aravakurichi, R Elango, who trailed TVK's P Karthikeyan for the first half, romped home by 19,382 votes. In Krishnarayapuram, traditionally an AIADMK bastion, TVK candidate M Sathya trounced AIADMK's S Divya by 3,503 votes. The DMK, which had breached this AIADMK bastion in 2021, slipped to third place despite changing its candidate in an attempt to retain the seat. "The results could have been different had Senthilbalaji been here and campaigned regularly. The fact that the former minister did not even come to vote in his hometown sends out a wrong message to the people," a DMK functionary said. Senthilbalaji, however, told reporters he did not vote to avoid any untoward incident in Coimbatore. "Though by a small margin, he at least won when senior ministers, including Stalin, lost," said DMK men. However, TVK sources said DMK could win only three constituencies in Coimbatore out of ten, as against the sweep claimed by Senthilbalaji before the election. The former minister won by a slender margin of 2,271 votes. "However, despite all the money spent, for us to have come so close is a victory in itself," TVK members from Karur and Coimbatore said.
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