South Chennai: Amid a sweeping win by the ruling DMK in the Lok Sabha election 2024 results in Tamil Nadu, ruling party candidate for South Chennai seat, Thangapandian won by over two lakh votes defeating Tamilisai Soundararajan on the hot seat.
As per the ECI data, Thangapandian secured 516628 votes while her nearest rival Soundarajan secured 290683 votes. All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's (AIADMK) J Jayavardhan was the 2nd runner up with 172491 votes.
Home to some top-notch educational institutions and IT companies, the prestigious South Chennai Parliament seat saw a triangular contest involving two women leaders and a former MP as the ruling DMK, AIADMK and BJP slugged it out in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Incumbent DMK MP T Sumathy alias Tamizhachi Thangapandian faced former Telangana Governor and BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan, while the AIADMK had fielded ex-MP Dr J Jayavardhan, who won from here in 2014.
Incidentally, Tamilisai resigned as governor days before rejoining the saffron party which soon nominated her from this segment. The leader expressed confidence of winning, saying she was aware of the problems in the constituency, being a resident for 40 years.
As for Jayavardhan, he said he was banking on the various welfare measures he brought in or initiated during his 2014-19 stint, in health and railway sectors among others. The constituency, also home for several residents engaged in the IT sector, entrepreneurs, business leaders among many others, is faced with problems such as waterlogging during the monsoon, as was evident in December 2023, erratic power supply and relaying of roads among many others.
South Chennai consists of six legislative assembly segments -- Velachery, Virugambakkam, Saidapet, Thiyagarayanagar, Mylapore and Sholinganallur. While Congress represents Velachery, the rest have DMK MLAs. Congress is part of the DMK-led bloc in the state. The constituency has been a DMK stronghold with the party winning it five times. AIADMK has emerged victorious twice. BJP is yet to make its mark in the region and secured third place in the 2014 elections.
As for Tamilisai Soundararajan, she contested from the Thoothukudi parliamentary constituency in the last parliamentary election in 2019 and lost, after which she was appointed as the Governor of Telangana.
Doctor-turned-politician Tamilisai Soundararajan is the daughter of Kumari Anandan, a senior leader of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee. Tamilisai Soundararajan, who held various positions in BJP as state general secretary, southern state medical wing coordinator, national secretary, and state president, contested against Kanimozhi Karunanidhi who is contesting on behalf of DMK in the Thoothukudi parliamentary constituency in 2019 and lost.
After that, she served as the Governor of Telangana State and Deputy Governor of Puducherry State and contested in the South Chennai Parliamentary Constituency in the recently concluded parliamentary elections.
South Chennai: (Incumbent: T.Sumathy - DMK)
2024 contest: The total number of registered voters in this constituency in 2024 polls was 2023133, and the seat saw a voting turnout of 54.17% (1096026 total count of votes), according to the Election Commission’s data. The seat went to polls in phase 1 on April 19, 2024.
In the 2019 LS Polls, T.Sumathy of DMK won from Sriperumbudur, getting 564,872 votes, comprising 50.17% of the total number of votes polled. He defeated Dr.J.Jayavardhan of AIADMK by a margin of 262,223 votes. In 2014, Dr. J. Jayavardhan,of AIADMK had won from this seat, polling 434,540 votes (40.56%) and defeating T.K.S.Elangovan of DMK by a margin of 1,35,575 votes.
