Chennai: DMK once again proved that Chennai is their citadel. Having a majority of MLAs in the city Assembly segments, the winning of three Lok Sabha constituencies has given them a big boost. All the DMK candidates who contested in the Lok Sabha elections in and around Chennai emerged winners by a huge margin, results for which were announced Thursday.
DMK candidates Dayanidhi Maran, Kalanidhi Veeraswamy and Thamizhachi Thangapandian won in Chennai Central, Chennai North and Chennai South, respectively. Similarly, T R Baalu and G Selvam won in the Sriperumbudur and Kanchipuram Lok Sabha constituencies respectively.
Chennai Central
Dayanidhi Maran secured 4,48,911 votes and emerged winner. He got 4,47,150 votes in the EVMs and 1,761 postal votes. He secured 57.15 per cent of the total votes polled in the constituency. He defeated PMK’s Sam Paul who contested on behalf of the AIADMK alliance. Dayanidhi Maaran is the son of former Union Minister Murasoli Maran and the grandnephew of former Tamilnadu Chief Minister and former DMK president M Karunanidhi.
He contested from Central Chennai Constituency as a DMK party candidate and been already elected twice during the 2004 and 2009 elections as member of Parliament. During the 2004 elections, his winning margin was over 1,34,000 votes and he received 62 per cent of the total votes polled. He lost the elections in 2014 against AIADMK’s S R Vijayakumar.
Chennai North
Kalanidhi Veeraswamy crossed the 60 per cent mark to emerge as the candidate to win by a huge margin in the seats in Chennai. He secured 5,90,986 out of which 5,890,34 were in EVMs and 1,952 postal votes. He secured 61.85 per cent votes and defeated DMDK’s Alagaapuram R Mohanraj who got 13.55 per cent votes. Kalanidhi Veeraswamy is the son of DMK leader Arcot N Veeraswamy.
Chennai South
DMK’s Thamizhachi Thangapandian who contested in her first election emerged victorious by defeating AIADMK’s incumbent MP J Jayavardhan. She is also the one woman MP from the city. Thamizhachi got 50.17 per cent of the total votes polled. She got 5,64,872 votes out of which 5,63,240 in EVMs and 1,632 postal votes. Jayavardhan managed to get 26.88 per cent of the votes and secured 3,02,649 votes. Thamizhachi Thangapandian is the daughter of late DMK leader Thangapandian and sister of sitting MLA Thangam Thennarasu.
Kanchipuram
DMK’s G Selvam secured 6,84,004 which is 55.27 per cent of the total votes polled to defeat incumbent AIADMK MP K Maragatham who got 3,97,372 votes.
Sriperumbudur
DMK’s T R Baalu defeated PMK’s A Vaithilingam. Baalu secured 7,93,281 with 56.39 per cent, out of this 7,90,750 were cast in the EVMS and 2,531 were postal votes. Vaithilingam secured 2,85,326 votes. Baalu was first elected as member of Lok Sabha from Chennai South in 1996 during which he was made the Minister of State, Petroleum, Natural Gas and Non-Conventional Energy Sources. 
He won the elections in 1998 and in 1999. He was made the Cabinet Minister for Environment and Forests in 1999. In 2004, he was elected to the Parliament for the fourth time when he became the Cabinet Minister for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways. He once again won in 2009 when he contested for the first time from Sriperumbudur. Baalu lost his first election when he contested from Thanjavur in 2014.