The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam tidal wave that unseated Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam from power in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections swept away as many as 17 senior ministers, including Finance Minister K Anbazhagan, who was trounced in Villivakkam constituency in Chennai.
Complete Coverage: Assembly Elections
Other notable DMK ministers who lost in the hustings are K Ponmudy (Villupuram), K N Nehru (Thiruchirapalli West), M R K Paneer Selvam (Kurinjipadi), Veerapandi S Arumugam (Sankagiri) Pongalur N Palanisamy (Coimbatore South), N Suresh Rajan (Kanyakumari) K K S S R Ramachandran (Aruppukkottai) and T M Anbarasan (Pallavaram).
S N M Ubayadullah (Thanjavur), N Selvaraj (Manachanallur), Vellakoil Saminathan (Madathukulam) Geetha Jeevan (Thoothukudi) R Tamilarasi (Manamadurai) K P P Sami (Thiruvottiyur) U Mathivanan (Kilvelur) and Poongothai Aladi Aruna (Alangulam) were the other ministers who fell by the way side as DMK won only 23 seats in the 234-member assembly.
Besides Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, who won from his native Tiruvarur by a huge margin of over 50,000 votes, other ministers who saved the embarrassment to DMK are his son M K Stalin (Kolathur), Durai Murugan (Katpadi), I Periyasamy (Athoor) E V Velu (Tiruvannamalai), Thangam Thennarasu (Tiruchuli), T P M Mohideen Khan (Palayamkottai) Suba Thangavelan (Tiruvadanai) and K Ramachandran (Coonoor).
Karunanidhi, elected to the assembly for his 12th term, secured 1,09,014 votes.
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