CHENNAI: The ruling AIADMK has won Nanguneri and is set to win Vikravandi Assembly constituencies where by-elections were held.
The ruling party won the Vikravandi bypolls by a margin of 44,775 votes against DMK candidate Pughazhendhi on Thursday. The total votes secured by AIADMK candidate Muthamilselvan was 1,13,407 , Pugazhendi won 68,632. The third position was secured by the Naam Thamizhar party who polled 2826 votes.
There was good news for AIADMK from Nanguneri too, where at the end of 11th round of counting AIAIDMK candidate V Narayanan is leading by 17,193 votes. He has secured 52,613 votes against Congress candidate Ruby Manoharnan who has secured 35,420 votes.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami thanked voters in the two constituencies for supporting the party candidates in the by-elections. He also thanked the cadres of PMK, BJP and other alliance parties and said, the two bypolls are historic.
After arriving at the AIADMK headquarters to a rousing reception from party cadres, he distributed sweets.
"As claimed by the opposition parties that the bypolls to Nanguneri and Vikravandi are forerunner for 2021 Assembly elections, AIADMK has won in these by-elections; says this winning streak will continue in the ensuing local body elections," the CM said.
During the campaign, we have promised only whatever we can do and we have now won the bypolls; the DMK, which gave false promises, has been defeated, he added.
Winning these by-elections should boost the morale of the AIADMK cadre as it would be seen as an endorsement of Palaniswami's governance.
It will also boost the image of the Chief Minister within the AIADMK and this will help the party in handling the seat-sharing talks with its allies in the ensuing elections to local bodies.
In the Lok Sabha elections, the AIADMK-backed New Justice Party leader AC Shanmugam, who fought the Vellore parliamentary constituency election, had been defeated by a margin of 8000 votes. Seeing the emerging results, the AIADMK leaders are now saying there is a big change in the mindset of the electorate.
In the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, the AIADMK currently has a strength of 123 including the Speaker while the DMK has 100 MLAs. DMK's ally Congress has seven MLAs. The simple majority mark is 118.
The bypolls come months after a similar exercise in April and May when elections were held to 22 Assembly seats along with Lok Sabha polls, with DMK winning 13 of them, and AIADMK nine.
The bypoll in Nanguneri was necessitated due to the resignation of its then legislator H Vasantha Kumar of the Congress who was elected to the Lok Sabha in April. Vikravandi went to polls after sitting DMK MLA K Radhamani died in June.
In Kamaraj Nagar of Puducherry, Congress candidate John Kumar won by polling 14,782 votes while NR Congress candidate Bouvanesvarane secured 7611.