KARUR, THANJAVUR, MADURAI:Continuing with its winning streak despite the anxiety surrounding the hospitalisation of party leader J Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK on Tuesday registered victory in all the three Assembly constituencies that went to polls on Saturday.
The most notable win was at Aravakurichi, where AIADMK’s V Senthil Balaji managed to wrest the seat from DMK heavyweight K C Palanisamy, who was elected from the constituency in 2011. Balaji, who for the first time was fielded in Aravakurichi with his former segment being Karur, had the last laugh registering a vote margin of 23,661 votes over Palanisamy.
The DMK’s assets protection committee secretary, Palanisamy had won Aravakurichi in 2011 by a slender margin of 4,541 votes. This time, he managed to secure 39.13 per cent of votes as against the 53.51 per cent secured by Balaji. In the afternoon, returning officer Saifudeen handed over the certificate to the winner.
With 39 candidates in the fray, Aravakurichi had registered 82.15 per cent polling — the highest among the three segments.
In Thanjavur, the AIADMK retained its position with an increased vote share when compared to the 2011 elections. M Rengasamy defeated Anjugam Boopathy from the DMK by a margin of 26,874 votes. The remaining 12 candidates, including those from the BJP, DMDK, PMK and NTK, forfeited their deposits.
BJP candidate M S Ramalingam forfeited deposit this time also, but increased his vote share from 1.27 per cent in 2011 to 2 per cent this time. As many as 2,295 chose None of the Above (NOTA) button, which stood fourth after the AIADMK, DMK and BJP. Both Aravakurichi and Thanjavur elections were rescheduled following the charge of bribing of voters before the general elections in May.
At Tirupparankundram, where bypoll was necessitated following the death of winning candidate in May elections, AIADMK candidate A K Bose won with a victory margin of 42,670 votes. This margin is the highest in all the three constituencies that saw polls.
With his win, Bose has become the MLA for the third time in Madurai district. He was not given a ticket to contest in the 2016 general elections and S M Seenivel was the party’s choice then.
Bose secured 1,13,032 votes, while DMK’s Dr P Saravanan secured the second place with 70,362 votes. A total of 26 candidates, including those from the BJP, DMDK and NTK, lost their deposits. As per the rule, the candidates would have to forfeit their deposits that they paid while filing nomination papers if they do not get one third of the votes that the winning candidate recorded.
While the BJP came third, the DMDK was pushed to the fourth slot. Its candidate T Dhanapandian got 4,105 votes. NOTA secured the fifth place with 2,214 people opting it. The margin between the votes polled by the DMDK candidate and NOTA was only 1,891 votes. Even N Mayilsamy, the candidate belonging to the Nationalist Congress Party, a recognised political party, got only 515 votes, which is much less than that of NOTA.
An independent, H Maideen Pitchai got 48 votes, the least to be polled by any in by-election.