CHENNAI: Even as the searing performances of the AIADMK and the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls stole the limelight, the AIADMK managed to notch up another by-poll victory in the Alandur Assembly constituency. In a result declared late on Friday, AIADMK’s V N P Venkatraman won over DMK’s R S Bharathi with a margin of about 19,000 votes.
The counting for the Alandur by-poll was held in Sriperumbudur alongside the counting for the Lok Sabha elections. Venkatraman scored 89,295 votes, with Bharathi trailing at 70,587 votes and DMDK’s M Kamaraja polling 20,442 votes.
Congress candidate Nanchil V Eswara Prasad came in third with 20,442 votes, while AAP’s Gnani got 5,729 votes. NOTA was the next highest, recording 4,248 votes.
Venkatraman is set to become the 152nd AIADMK legislator in the Tamil Nadu Assembly and completes a 100 per cent record for the ruling party in by-elections held since it stormed to power in 2011. It is yet to be announced when Venkatraman would take oath as a member of the House in front of the Speaker, P Dhanapal.
The fight was expected to be a close one, as Bharathi was perceived as a strong candidate. The lawyer had earlier lost an election bid in the South Chennai constituency in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, to AIADMK’s ‘Chitlapakkam’ C Rajendran.
Meanwhile, independent candidate, Gandian activist Sasi Perumal, polled 282 votes.