DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran set to win big from Chennai Central, PMK’s Sam Paul a distant second

While the DMK contested in all parliamentary seats in the state capital, the AIADMK-BJP chose to delegate it among allies.
DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran set to win big from Chennai Central, PMK’s Sam Paul a distant second
DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran set to win big from Chennai Central, PMK’s Sam Paul a distant second
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In a massive victory for the DMK, former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran is set to win big against PMK's Sam Paul, of the AIADMK-BJP alliance. With a margin of 2.97 lakh votes (at the time of publishing), the two-time MP was primed to win against political newbie and businessman Sam Paul. Dayanidhi Maran has now polled more than 4.4 lakh votes, while  his rival Sam Paul has clocked 1.4 lakh votes. Surprisingly, Kameela Nasser, the candidate of Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam has now polled more than 90,000 votes. Chennai Central constituency witnessed a 57.86% voter turnout when the state went to polls on April 18 in the second phase of the seven phase elections.

Dayanidhi Maran, son of late DMK leader and former Minister Murasoli Maran, has been elected twice from the Chennai Central parliamentary constituency in 2004 and 2009. He was, however, routed in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls by SR Vijayakumar of the AIADMK. That year saw the DMK decimated at the Lok Sabha polls, not winning a single seat.

While the DMK contested in all parliamentary seats in the state capital, the AIADMK-BJP chose to delegate it among allies. With all six Assembly segments held by the DMK in Chennai Central, the AIADMK chose to delegate the Chennai Central seat to the PMK.

On the campaign trail, Dayanidhi Maran had attacked the Edappadi Palaniswami-led government on a number of issues, frequently harping on the legacy of leaders like his father— who held the Chennai Central constituency three times— as well as late former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.

The former Telecom Minister was mired in the BSNL Telephone Exchange scam dating back to his tenure under UPA-I. In February, a special CBI court in Chennai framed charges in the illegal telephone exchange case against Dayanidhi Maran, Kalanithi Maran and five others, including former BSNL General Manager K Brahmanandam, former Deputy General Manager MP Velusamy, Dayanidhi Maran’s Private Secretary Gauthaman, and Sun TV employees Kannan and Ravi.

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