Three AIADMK ministers suffer defeat at the hands of their former colleagues

TIRUCHY: At least three out of the 11 AIADMK ministers who lost their reelection in the 2021 assembly election faced defeat in the hands of candidates who were once long-associated with the AIADMK.

Ahead of the 2021 assembly election, a total of 27 out of 30 cabinet ministers were provided with an opportunity to contest in the polls. While 16 of those ministers managed to secure wins in the counting which was held on Sunday, 11 ministers failed to retain their seats.

A closer look at the results reveal that three losing ministers- Transport Minister MR Vijayabaskar, Law minister C Ve Shanmugavel and Minister for Industrial Government, MC Sampath were defeated by candidates who once belonged with the AIADMK.

In Karur, MR Vijayabaskar suffered defeat with a margin of 12,448 to DMK's Senthil Balaji. Before coming to DMK in 2018, Senthil Balaji was the transport minister under the cabinet of former CM J Jayalalitha in 2016. When Senthil Balaji held the post of AIADMK District Secretary of Karur, MR Vijayabaskar worked under him.

Similarly at Cuddalore, MC Sampath lost to the DMK candidate G Iyappan with a margin of 6559 votes. G Iyappan, a former DMK MLA shifted camps to AIADMK after the party leadership denied him seat in the 2011 assembly election. After building close relations with MC Sampath in the AIADMK for over 9 years, the turncoat Iyappan returned to DMK and managed to defeat his old companion.

In the case of C Ve Shanmugavel in the Villupuram constituency, the law minister was defeated by a vote margin of 14,868 votes by R Lakshmanan. Lakshmanan, was a former district secretary of the Villupuram unit of the AIADMK and also a Rajya Sabha MP in 2013. However, frustrated over the elevation of Shanmugavel to the district secretary post, Lakshman shifted camps to DMK just few months before the election and managed to upset him.