CHENNAI: All eyes are on the results of the two Assembly by-elections to be out on Thursday, which could boost the morale of the party that emerges winner. The ruling AIADMK’s MR Muthamizhselvan and DMK’s N Pugazhendhi are locked in a straight fight in Vikravandi. In Nanguneri, DMK-backed Congress candidate ‘Ruby’ R Manoharan, battling the ‘outsider’ tag, is taking on Reddiyarpatti V Narayanan of the AIADMK.
In the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, the AIADMK has a strength of 123 including the Speaker while the DMK has 100 MLAs and its ally Congress seven. Although the by-election results may not have any bearing on the stability of the K Palaniswami-led AIADMK government, they will definitely pave the way for both opposition and ruling parties to draw up strategies during the forthcoming local body elections and the 2021 Assembly elections.
The bypolls come months after a similar exercise in April and May when by-elections were held to 22 Assembly seats along with Lok Sabha polls, with the DMK winning 13 of them, and the AIADMK nine. Nanguneri and Vikravandi by-elections were held on Monday. Both seats were earlier represented by MLAs of the DMK-led front.
The bypoll to Nanguneri was necessitated by the resignation of its then legislator H Vasantha Kumar of the Congress who was elected to the Lok Sabha in April. Vikravandi bypoll was held due to the death of its sitting DMK MLA K Radhamani in June.
Details of 61% of State’s voters verified: CEO
Chennai: The State Election Commission has verified details of as many as 61.87% voters in the State till October 22. Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo addressed the media on Wednesday and said the commission had verified a total of 3,7116464 of 5,99,90913 voters through the specially launched Elector Verification Program (EVP) that commenced on September 1 across the country. Perambalur district completed the verification programme for all the 551932 enrolled voters. Only 18.53% has been completed in Chennai district, he added.
Plea to recover Nanguneri bypoll expenses from MP
Madurai: S Thamizharasan of Madurai Consumer Protection Rights Consortium filed a Public Interest Litigation petition at the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court seeking direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to recover expenses incurred to conduct bypoll to the Nanguneri Assembly segment from Kanniyakumari MP H Vasanthakumar as the election was necessitated by his resignation from Naguneri MLA post, after he became an MP. The Judges adjourned the next hearing of the case by two weeks.