Annamalai polled over 1 lakh votes in one assembly segment

COIMBATORE: BJP state president and Coimbatore candidate K Annamalai has performed well in Kavundapalayam assembly constituency where he secured 1,04,549 votes and his highest in all Assembly constituencies (AC) in the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency. However, he secured 53,579 votes in Coimbatore South, despite it being the home turf of party colleague Vanathi Srinivasan and incumbent MLA.

The only consolation for Annamalai is that he secured double the votes than AIADMK candidate Singai G Ramachandran in Singanallur AC even though the constituency is Ramachandran’s home turf. His father Singai Govindaraj was a former MLA from the constituency.

Ramachandran’s supporters alleged that he lost because AIADMK whip and district in-charge SP Velumani did not work hard and skipped many campaigns. Ramachandran secured 2,36,490 votes including 887 postal votes.

Out of 4,50,132 total votes polled for Annamalai, 4,47,608 were polled through EVMs and 2,524 votes were postal ballots. At the same time, Annamalai got a massive difference in Palladam and Sulur assembly constituencies (AC) over his rival DMK candidate Ganapathi K Rajkumar, which are rural areas and situated in Tiruppur district, than in urban segments of the Lok Sabha constituency.

According to data shared by the EC, Annamalai polled 76,333 votes in Palladam and 75,501 votes in Sulur respectively after Kavundapalayam. This was 37,806 less than what his DMK opponent Ganapathy K Rajkumar polled in Palladam (1,14,139 ) and 20,518 votes less in Sulur (96,019).
The DMK candidate secured 5,68,200 votes including 2772 postal votes and defeated Annammalai by a margin of 1,18,068 votes.

Out of the 13,73,529 total votes polled in the Coimbatore constituency, 13,61,045 votes were valid, 696 votes were rejected and as many as 11,788 opted for NOTA. Interestingly, four Rajkumars were in the fray and they secured a total of 3584 votes.