A. Raja wins third term as the Nilgiris MP

A. Raja of DMK wins Nilgiris Parliamentary Constituency by over 2.4 lakh votes, defeating BJP's L. Murugan.

  The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s A. Raja defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate and Union Minister, L. Murugan by a margin of more than 2.4 lakh votes in the Nilgiris Parliamentary Constituency.

After counting of votes, it was declared that Mr. Raja garnered a total of 4,73,212 votes, out of a total of 10,20,085 votes that were cast. The BJP’s L. Murugan came in at second place with a total of 2,32,627 votes, while the AIADMK’s Lokesh Tamilselvan came in third with 2,20,230 votes.

The declaration of the results was delayed after counting of votes in six EVM machines were halted in the evening due to a malfunction. The VVPAT slips were counted instead, and the results were declared at around 7 p.m.

In what was expected to be a closely fought contest, Mr. Raja, the former union telecom minister under the UPA government, ended up winning by a comfortable margin. With his latest victory, Mr. Raja will continue as Nilgiris MP for the third term, with his only loss coming in 2014, in the immediate aftermath of the fallout of the 2G scam in which he was implicated. In the years since, Mr. Raja was acquitted of all charges by the Delhi High Court.

It was suspected that Mr. Raja’s prospects of being re-elected from the Nilgiris could have suffered a blow in the months leading up to the election, with his controversial remarks on Sanatana dharma drawing flack from the BJP, who accused him of being “anti-Hindu.”

A few villages in the Nilgiris had also passed resolutions with strict diktats to residents to not vote for him. However, he defied all expectations to emerge victorious.

Speaking to reporters after he was given his victory certificate by Returning Officer for Nilgiris constituency M. Aruna, Mr. Raja said that the Dravidian model of governance had been the hallmark of Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s style of governance. He said that the results of the election were proof of the people’s trust in the Chief Minister, and said that the party had consistently spoken about the threat to democracy and of religious polarisation in the run-up to the elections. Mr. Raja said that he would work even harder in his upcoming term as the Nilgiris Lok Sabha MP.