In a nail biting finish, DMK wins Vellore Lok Sabha seat
Vellore (TN), Aug 9: In a nail biting finish, DMK's D M Kathir Anand on Friday won the Vellore Lok Sabha segment defeating his nearest rival, AIADMK's ally A C Shanmugam, by a narrow margin of 8,141 votes.
The result came as a setback to the AIADMK which was hoping to retain the seat and prove a point after it faced a near rout in the April Lok Sabha elections with the DMK-led alliance winning 37 of the 38 constituencies then.
The DMK candidate, son of party Treasurer Duraimurugan, bagged 4,85,340 votes and garnered a 47.3 per cent vote share as it wrested the Vellore seat from its arch rival AIADMK which had won it in 2014.
Shanmugam of Puthiya Needhi Katchi, who contested on the AIADMK's Two-Leaves symbol, polled 4,77,199 votes and got 46.51 per cent share, the Election Commission announced.
Thanking the voters, DMK chief M K Stalin said the victory was "exceptional and unparallelled."
Since the election was like a bypoll, trouncing a ruling party candidate meant a "huge victory," he told reporters.
Also, the win has cemented DMK's position as the third biggest party in the Lok Sabha, he said adding his party's victory could have been "delayed," but cannot be "prevented."
He was apparently referring to the earlier cancellation of the election in Vellore in April when the rest of the 38 seats in Tamil Nadu went for polls. The EC had then cancelled the poll in Vellore following seizure of huge cash.
The election was subsequently held on August 5 and the counting of votes was taken up on Friday morning.
The lead kept changing in initial rounds but the DMK candidate later narrowed the gap steadily and then forged ahead, holding on to the little over 8,000 vote difference till the end.
Reflecting the sea-saw battle, the AIADMK cadres brimmed with enthusiasm initially but once the trend changed it was the turn of DMK workers to break into celebrations here and at the party headquarters Anna Arivalayam in Chennai.
Distribution of sweets, bursting of crackers and dancing marked the DMK's victory here and in other parts of Tamil Nadu.
Carrying party flags, DMK workers lined up at the residence of Stalin in Chennai to celebrate the victory.
District Election Officer and Collector A Shanmuga Sundaram gave away the certificate of election to Kathir Anand following completion of counting and tallying votes recorded in five Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) devices for each of the six assembly segments under the Lok Sabha seat.
With this win, the DMK's tally in Lok Sabha has now gone up to 24 and that of the alliance led by it to 38.
According to the provisional data provided by the EC, the AIADMK polled more votes in Anaicut, K V Kuppam and Gudiyattam assembly segments while DMK was ahead in Vellore, Vaniyambadi and Ambur, which have a sizable Muslim population.
The AIADMK which strained every nerve to retain the seat and recover the lost political ground had to be content with giving a tough fight.
Chief Minister K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam had campaigned in the constituency and had accused the DMK of having swept the Lok Sabha polls by giving false promises.
The margin of victory in Vellore seat is however the lowest for the DMK compared to the April polls though the party's ally Thol Thirumavalavan of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi had scraped home by just 3,219 votes in Chidambaram seat then.
"We consider the win as people's confidence on Stalin," Duraimurugan said. Tamil Nadu Congress Committee chief, K S Alagiri said DMK's victory was expected.
AIADMK senior leader and Minister D Jayakumar said "only we have won," and alleged the DMK emerged victorious through "foul means". He pointed out that the margin was only about 8,000 votes.
In the end, Deepalakshmi of Naam Tamilar Katchi, who got 26,995 votes and came third, and NOTA (none of the above) accounting for 9,417 votes, appeared to have poured cold water on the AIADMK's chances.
Though the result was a disappointment for AIADMK, party cadres were of the view that the narrow margin further validated the leadership of Palaniswami and Panneerselvam after the win in nine of the 22 assembly seats in crucial bypolls in April that ensured stability of the government.
Over 300 polling officials conducted the counting exercise amidst a three-tier security which included about 1,000 state police and paramilitary personnel and monitoring through 70 CCTV cameras.
In the election held on August 5, a polling percentage of 71.51 was recorded in the constituency which has 14.32 lakh voters.
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Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouaméni half a million euros each for altercation
Barcelona (AP): Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice.
The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.
On social media, Valverde initially called it a “meaningless fight” with a teammate and said “everything has been blown out of proportion."
His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouaméni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.
In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club “their complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.”
Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed “opportune.”
Tchouaméni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion.
After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.
“What happened this week in training is unacceptable,” Tchouaméni wrote. "I say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.
“Above all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.”
Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.
Both players are set to play in the World Cup next month, with Tchouaméni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.
Chaotic end to a poor season
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The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid's midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club's decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go after just months on the job.
It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Álvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a “minor” incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rüdiger got into a scuffle.
Álvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid's reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.
Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino Pérez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.
