PUDUCHERRY: In a fight for prestige, the ruling Congress retained the Kamaraj Nagar constituency with its candidate A John Kumar (54) winning over his nearest rival Bouvanesvarane (53) of the All India NR Congress (AINRC) by a margin of 7,170 votes. John Kumar, who contested the seat in Congress -DMK alliance secured 14,782 votes out of a total of 24,310 votes polled, while Bouvanesvarane, who contested in the AINRC-AIADMK-BJP alliance, polled 7,612 votes.
M Praveena of Naam Thamizhar Katchi secured 620 votes, followed by C Vetriselvam of Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, the new party floated by veteran leader P Kannan with 343 votes. The others to reach the three-figure mark are Lenin Durai (SUCI-Communist) with 294 votes and S. Govindaraj (All India Makkal Kazhagam) with 121 votes.
As many as 426 voters had opted for NOTA.
Amid tight security, the counting began at 8 am at Motilal Nehru Government Polytechnic. Right from the first round, John Kumar established a lead which increased in the subsequent rounds. With this win, the strength of the Congress has been restored to 15 in the Territorial Assembly, which has 30 elected members and three nominated MLAs. The ruling party has a strength of 19, with the support of three DMK members and one Independent MLA from Mahe. The Opposition has a strength of 14 MLAs with AINRC -7, AIADMK - 4 and BJP -3 (nominated).
The by-election became necessary after incumbent legislator V Vaithilingam (Congress) resigned, following his election to the Lok Sabha from the lone Parliamentary constituency in April. This is John Kumar’s first victory in Kamaraj Nagar, though he was earlier elected from Nellithope constituency in 2016 Assembly elections. However, he vacated the seat to facilitate Chief Minister V Narayanasamy to contest and win.
CM thanks voters
Thanking the voters, Narayanasamy said the Congress-DMK combine securing two-thirds of the votes polled was an endorsement of the government’s popularity and support for its welfare schemes.“The failure of the Opposition parties in adopting a constructive approach, Lt Governor Kiran Bedi creating trouble to the government by blocking schemes and the ruling party’s efforts in implementing schemes despite all these hurdles has helped us win,” he said. The Opposition campaign did not highlight the issues of people but only attacked Congress. This didn’t go down well with the people, Narayanasamy said.
Further, NR Congress president N Rangasmy was not interested in people’s welfare, he said.
Cong has 15 MLAs
With this win, the strength of the Congress has been restored to 15 in the Assembly, which has 30 elected members & 3 nominated MLAs. The ruling party has a strength of 19, with the support of 3 DMK MLA and one Independent MLA
7,170 votes John Kumar secured over NR Congress candidate