Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate for the Coimbatore Parliamentary constituency P.R. Natarajan won the elections with a decisive mandate, polling 45.35% of the total votes polled.
He secured over 5.66 lakh votes, which was a little over 1.75 lakh votes more than the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate C.P. Radhakrishnan, who polled over 3.91 lakh votes.
Mr. Radhakrishnan’s vote share stood at 31.33%.
Addressing reporters late on Thursday evening, Mr. Natarajan, who returns to Parliament after a gap of five years, thanked the voters and leaders of alliance parties who had worked towards his victory.
He said he would work for the betterment of industries and Coimbatore’s development. “I will voice the impact the imposition of demonetisation and introduction of Goods and Services Tax had had on the small and medium industries in Coimbatore.”
The CPI(M) MP-elect also promised to work towards protecting River Noyyal and River Kowsika and implement the promises he had made in his manifesto.
Mr. Natarajan had established his lead over Mr. Radhakrishnan right from the first round and continued to increase his margin with every round of counting. Boosting his margin was the votes polled in the Kavundampalayam Assembly segment of the Coimbatore Parliamentary constituency.
Makkal Needhi Maiam’s candidate R. Mahendran polled 1.44 lakh votes to emerge third, followed by Naam Tamilar Katchi's S.Kalyana Sundaram at over 60,000 votes and Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam’s N.R. Appathurai at 38,024 votes.
Except Mr. Radhakrishnan, all others stand to lose their deposit.
Earlier, in the day, the counting began at 8 a.m. for five of the six Assembly segments and at 8.30 for the other segment. The officials counted the postal ballots in the presence of District Election Officer and Collector K. Rajamani.
Even in the postal ballot, Mr. Natarajan had polled more than Mr. Radhakrishnan. The former secured 3,409 votes and the latter 1,184.