The results of the by-polls in two constituencies of Tamil Nadu and Kerala turned out as predicted by winning parties.
AIADMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa recorded a massive victory in the Radhakrishnan (RK) Nagar constituency as she won the seat with more than 1,60,921 votes, defeating her nearest rival CPI leader Mahendran.
Meanwhile, the Congress retained the Aruvikkara assembly seat with KA Sabarinathan's victory. Sabarinathan won the seat with 56,448 votes. He was fielded as the candidate for by-polls after the death of Congress leader G Karthikeyan in March.
While the contest was close between Sabarinathan and his rivals CPI-M leader M Vijayakumar and BJP's O Rajagopal in Kerala, Jayalalithaa led the contest against her rivals throughout.
She was leading with more than one lakh votes even as her nearest rival Mahendran was lagging behind with less than 10,000 votes by the end of 14th round of counting. He managed to secure only 9,669 votes.
RK Nagar assembly by-poll
With Tuesday's by-poll result, Jayalalithaa, who lost the Srirangam state assembly constituency after her conviction in the ₹66 crore disproportionate assets case in September last year, returns as Tamil Nadu MLA.
Jayalalithaa had won the Srirangam constituency in 2011.
After a sessions court in Bengaluru sentenced her to four years in jail along with a fine of ₹100 crore for accumulating wealth illegally, AIADMK chief was disqualified from her post as well as from contesting any elections under the the Representation of People Act (section 8 (3)).
However, she returned to politics and took power as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for a fifth time after the Karnataka High Court overturned the conviction on 11 May. The HC acquitted her owing to lack of evidence to support the allegations against her.
The 67-year-old AIADMK supremo contested the by-poll from RK Nagar constituency for the first time and recorded a landslide victory. The constituency was vacated for Jayalalithaa by party leader P Vetrivel, who was earlier the MLA from RK Nagar.
Jayalalithaa's victory was even more clear as most of the opposition parties had boycotted the by-polls claiming that AIADMK had misused its power. Of the 28 candidates, who contested by-elections, 26 were independents.
Aruvikkara assembly by-poll
The Congress party fielded Sabarinathan for the Aruvikkara assembly by-poll that was conducted after the sudden demise of Karthikeyan in March.
Sabarinathan represented the United Democratic Front (UDF) alliance led by INC. The victory in this by-poll is considered important because this vote pattern is expected to decide the future of the coalition and Congress party in the local bodies' election and the Assembly elections to be conducted later, according to The Hindu.
The party was earlier mulling to field Karthikeyan's widow MT Sulekha to contest from the seat.
Both the by-polls were conducted on 27 June. While RK Nagar witnessed a 74.4% turnout, Aruvikkara recorded 77.35% turnout.
