© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Actor and Makkal Needhi Maiam leader Kamal Haasan faced defeat on his poll debut in the Coimbatore South constituency in Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. BJP’s national women’s wing leader Vanathi Srinivasan, who was trailing initially, gained momentum in the second half of the day and managed to beat the Tamil actor by a slender margin of over 1,300 votes.
The constituency, which gained huge traction from the day the candidates were announced, offered a nail-biting finish with Vanathi being declared winner only in the last round of counting of votes.
The Coimbatore (South) constituency saw a three-way battle between Haasan, Vanathi, and Congress candidate Mayura S Jayakumar. In the first couple of hours, Jayakumar gained some momentum but soon Haasan took the lead. The contest then looked like an easy finish for the Tamil actor until Vanathi made inroads. Since afternoon, the votes swung like a pendulum between the BJP and MNM. Till the 22nd round, Haasan was leading the contest but from thereon, Vanathi never looked back.
While the Election Commission is yet to officially announce the winner, Vanathi took to Twitter to declare her victory. In the 2016 election in the same constituency, she had finished third by securing 21.57 per cent vote share.
https://twitter.com/VanathiBJP/status/1388884064711548934
Meanwhile, the MNM functionaries complained that the Election Commission has favoured the BJP candidate by delaying the counting. Some of them even said their party would be approaching the court for recounting.
