Jayalalithaa wins big in RK Nagar by-poll, defeats CPI’s Mahendran by over 1.5 lakh votes

Mangalore Today News Network

Chennai, June 30, 2015: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa trounced her nearest rival and CPI candidate C Mahendran with a huge margin of over 1.5 lakh votes as the results for Radha Krishnan Nagar assembly seat by-election was declared on Tuesday.

As per reports, Jayalalithaa polled 160,432 votes while her nearest rival, Mahendran, got just 9,710 votes - a victory margin of 150,722 votes.

The total electorate in the constituency was around 245,000, and the Chief Minister bagged more than 50 percent of the total votes polled.

As noisy celebrations erupted at the AIADMK headquarters and outside Jayalalithaa’s residence, Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah congratulated her over her landslide win, an official statement said.

AIADMK activists and leaders generously distributed sweets to all and sundry and burst crackers to celebrate the thumping victory - a record of sorts for Jayalalithaa.

An elated Jayalalithaa thanked voters and AIADMK supporters for her massive victory and said the result was a precursor for the 2016 assembly elections.

This is the seventh by-poll victory for AIADMK since it came to power in 2011. The party has won all the by-polls held since 2011.

As counting of votes began at 8 am, Jayalalithaa began to build a massive lead over her rivals.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister was said to leading with 127204 votes after the 13th round of counting of votes. Her main opponent C Mahendran was lagging behind with 7368 votes, as per reports.

Jayalalithaa was said to be leading with 1,18,043 votes after the end of 11th round of counting, while her CPI rival C Mahendran had secured 6,713 votes.

After 10 rounds of counting, Jayalalithaa was leading with 98528 votes and CPI candidate C Mahendran was trailing with 6218 votes.

Jayalalithaa managed to bag 86564 votes by the end of ninth round of counting against CPI candidate C Mahendran who was lagging behind with 5881 votes.

After the end of the seventh round of counting, Jayalalithaa captured 35% of total votes securing 67899 votes. Her nearest rival CPI’s C Mahendran secured 4876 votes.

At the end of sixth round of counting, AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa secured over 58297 votes against her CPI rival C Mahendran who managed to get just 4349 votes.

While Independent candidates won 1020 votes, 505 voters opted for NOTA (none of the above).

After the fifth round of counting, Jayalalithaa secured 49000 votes as against CPI’s C Mahendran who could poll just 3713 votes.

At the end of fourth round, Jayalalithaa polled 38,406 votes against her CPI rival who secured 2809 votes.

Jayalalithaa polled over 30,000 votes in the third round of counting of votes against her nearest rival Mahendran who could get only 2000 odd votes.

At the end of the first round, Jayalalithaa got 9,562 votes (including postal votes), while Communist Party of India’s (CPI) candidate C Mahendran secured 930 votes.

Social activist KR Ramaswamy, popularly known as `Traffic Ramaswamy’, got 289 votes.

Out of the 11,188 votes counted in the first round, 174 voters opted for NOTA (none of the above).

Re-polling at one of the booths in Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency was held yesterday.

The early trends put the party supporters in a celebratory mode with many of them thronging the AIADMK headquarters and Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence here, raising slogans of ’Puratchi Thalavi Vazhga (Hail revolutionary leader).

AIADMK’s allies like Republican Party of India, AISMK and Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi described Jayalalithaa’s massive margin lead as a ’grand victory’ for her social welfare schemes besides her government’s efforts in addressing power shortage.

During her campaign on June 22 at RK Nagar, Jayalalithaa had not only sought a massive victory for her party, but insisted that it should be a ’precursor’ to the next Assembly polls.

Incidentally, the victory is a record of sorts as Jayalalithaa has polled more than 85,000 votes.

In 2006 AIADMK candidate PK Sekarbabu polled 84,462 votes. In 2011 P Vetrivel of AIADMK got 83,777 votes and defeated Sekarbabu who had by then shifted to DMK. Vetrivel won the election in 2011 with a margin of over 31,000 votes.

This time the polling percentage was higher at around 74 percent, up form 72.72 percent polled in 2011 assembly elections.

The total number of voters in the constituency is around 245,000.

While there were 28 candidates in the fray, only CPI’s Mahendran was viewed as a serious opponent for Jayalalithaa. Opposition parties like the DMK, the PMK, the DMDK, the Congress, the BJP and the MDMK stayed away from the contest.

The two Left parties - CPI and CPI-M - fielded Mahendran as their joint candidate.

The Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency fell vacant after AIADMK’s Vetrivel resigned from the house to facilitate Jayalalithaa’s re-election to the assembly.

Jayalalithaa, elected from Srirangam in 2011, lost that seat and the chief minister’s post after a trial court in Bengaluru convicted her in the disproportionate assets case.

The Karnataka High Court upheld her appeal and acquitted her of all charges. Jayalalithaa was again sworn in as chief minister, but she has to get elected to the assembly within six months.

The Karnataka government has gone on appeal against the high court order in the Supreme Court.

 

Courtesy: Zeenews