Chennai: Muzzled celebrations at the MK Stalin's residence after the party returned to power after a decade. Stalin who's been into politics for a long time is tasting his first victory.
The DMK is leading in more than 150 seats as of trends at 8 pm, much ahead of the halfway mark of 118.
Read:| MK Stalin set to become CM as DMK leads in over 140 seats
The party is expected to form a government with a clear majority. This election, the first after the demise of Dravidian stalwarts M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalitha was seen as a litmus test for Stalin and Edappadi Palanisamy. Clearly, MK Stalin has emerged victorious.
DMK youth wing secretary Udhaynidhi Stalin has won the Chepauk-Triplicane constituency with a huge margin by securing 93,285 votes, surpassing his father's leads.
The AIADMK alliance has secured around 80 seats. At least 9 AIADMK sitting ministers are trailing. Most importantly party's Deputy CM OPS won after a close contest in his home ground Bodinayakanur.
TTV Dhinakaran of AMMK, nephew of VK Sasikala and challenger to the AIADMK is trailing in the Kovilpatti constituency.
Kushboo faced a defeat in the Thousand Light constituency in Chennai in the hands of DMK candidate and Dravidian idealogue Ezhilan. Surprisingly, the BJP, which is ambitious to set foot in the state is leading in 4 seats. The party secured comfortable leads in Thirunelveli and Modakuruchi constituencies while leading with a thin edge in Modakurichi.
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MNM chief Kamal Hassan is facing a tough contest in Coimbatore south constituency from BJP Women Wing National President Vanathi Seenivasan and currently, the race is neck-to-neck.
Saffron party's state Chief L Murugan is trailing.
The Indian National Congress party has performed decently with leading in 16 seats of the 25 it contested and secured 9,31,747 or 3.8% votes at the early trends. Seeman of Naam Thamilar Party is pushed to third place in Thiruvottiyur constituency.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Actor Rajinikanth, and many others have congratulated MK Stalin and DMK for this victory. The state is facing a change of guard after 2 consecutive terms and the newly elected DMK government will have to tackle the herculean task of controlling the pandemic as cases are rising exponentially.
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