CHENNAI: AIADMK is leading in 53 constituencies as counting for the state’s 17th assembly reaches the halfway mark. This trend indicates that Edappadi K Palaniswami is set to lose his position as leader of the opposition. The party’s strength is also expected to decrease by 13 seats compared to the outgoing assembly, falling from 66 to 53 seats.Palaniswami secured 85,553 votes and is leading by 54,458 in the Edappadi constituency. Senior AIADMK leaders and former ministers KP Anabalagan (Palacode), C Ve Shanmugam (Mailam), Agri SS Krishnamurthy (Kalasapakkam), C Vijayabaskar (Viralimalai), SP Velumani (Thondamuthur), KC Veeramani (Jolarpet), and Natham R. Viswanathan (Natham) are all maintaining healthy leads.Former ministers B Valarmathi (Thousand Lights), D Jayakumar (Royapuram), S Gokula Indira (Anna Nagar), and RB Udhayakumar (Thirumangalam) were trailing as of noon.AIADMK ally PMK is leading in five out of 18 constituencies, while BJP candidate M Bhojarajan is maintaining a slender lead in the Udhagamandalam constituency. Thirty-two other candidates fielded under the Lotus symbol are also being monitored.TTV Dhinakaran’s AMMK is leading in one constituency.
