Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s A. Raja emerged a comfortable winner, contesting the Nilgiris Lok Sabha constituency seat, garnering 2.05 lakh votes more than his nearest competitor M. Thiyagarajan of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Counting started on time in the Nilgiris, with a heavy police presence locking down Ooty-Gudalur Road, where the counting centre at the Government Polytechnic College had been set up.
Mr. Raja maintained a healthy lead over his rival, consistently garnering an average of around 10,000 votes more than the AIADMK candidate throughout all 24 rounds of counting.
At around 4.45 p.m., he was declared the winner, garnering 5,47,472 votes. Mr. Thiyagarajan got 3,42,009 votes.
On Thursday evening, Mr. Raja, along with other party members, held a parade within Udhagamandalam town and visited the DMK party office where they garlanded a statue of former Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai.
At the counting centre, Mr. Raja told reporters it was a matter of great concern that the Bharatiya Janata Party had retained power, and added that lack of rational leaders like C.N. Annadurai and Periyar had led to the rise of the BJP in North India. He vowed to fight the BJP and on behalf of secularism and democracy.
