Post-acquittal, Jaya returns to TN House with massive win

KV Prasad

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 30 

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa today returned to the state Assembly crushing the Opposition by winning the RK Nagar constituency in Chennai by a big margin of over 1.50 lakh votes, as ruling parties won all other five by-elections to the Assemblies of Tripura (2) and one each in Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya.

While her victory was never in doubt, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister got 1,60,432 of the 1,80,420 votes polled (88.43 per cent). She defeated her nearest rival C Mahendran of CPI (9,710 votes) who along with independent Ramaswamy (4,790 voters) were the only ones in a field of 20-odd candidates to secure votes in four digits. The rest were restricted to three digits, with all forfeiting their deposits.

The Chief Minister needed to fulfil the constitutional requirement of getting elected as MLA within six months of assuming office. She returned to the post on May 23 after being acquitted by the Karnataka High Court in a disproportionate assets case. AIADMK’s P Vetrivel vacated the seat to enable her to seek re-election. In neighbouring Kerala, the ruling UDF government managed to retain the Aruvikkara seat adjoining Thiruvananthapuram with KS Sabarinadhan of the Congress winning the seat by a margin of 10,128 votes. Son of former Speaker G Kartikeyan, whose death caused a vacancy, Sabarinadhan’s (56,448 votes) win came as a breather for the Oomen Chandy government facing a series of charges.

While the opposition CPM stood second with its candidate M Vijayakumar securing 46,320 votes, the cause of worry for the Left Front is the increasing strength of the BJP. Former Union Minister O Rajagopal got 34,145, more than double the 14,890 votes the party secured from this Assembly segment during the 2014 Lok Sabha. The party also sliced a substantial anti-incumbency votes from the CPM.

The BJP retained the Garoth Assembly seat in MP’s Mandsaur district with a reduced margin than in the 2013 Assembly polls. Chander Singh Sisodia defeated Congress’ Subhash Kumar Sojatia with a margin of 12,945 votes, an election officer said. The BJP had earlier won by a margin of 25,755 votes.

Ruling CPM in Tripura won both the Pratapgarh and Surma reserved Assembly seats by a huge margin. Ramu Das defeated his nearest BJP rival Mousami Das by a margin of 17,326 votes in the Pratapgarh constituency, while Anjan Das beat his nearest BJP rival Asish Das in Surma by a margin of 15,309 votes. The BJP took the second position by dislodging the Congress in both the seats.

In Meghalaya, the Congress won the Chokpot seat by a margin of 2,550 votes with its candidate Blubell R Sangma defeating her nearest rival Philipole Marak of National People’s Party.