Amid gloom elsewhere, Congress finds solace in TN

CHENNAI: Congress has performed exceedingly well in 16 of the 25 seats it got in TN. But, what makes the success sweeter for the Grand Old Party is that it has defeated its national rival BJP in four out of the five seats where they directly faced each other.

It has also wrested the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha constituency. Except in Coimbatore South, Congress candidates secured fair margins in Colachal, Vilavancodu, Udhagamandalam, and Karaikudi.   In Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha constitueny, V Vijaya Kumar alias Vijay Vasanth of Congress won with a margin of one lakh votes over senior BJP leader Pon Radhakrishnan.

Congress S Vijayadharani retained the  Vilavancode Assembly segment, defeating BJP’s R Jayaseelan by 12,000 votes. In Karaikudi, BJP leader H Raja came next to Congress S Mangudi who secured over 35,000 votes. Prince J G, Congress candidate from Colachal established a lead against BJP’s Ramesh P with a margin of around 12,000 votes. In Udhagamandalam, the party replicated its feat, thanks to Ganesh R, who secured around 61,000 votes.