Jayalalithaa Records Landslide Victory in RK Nagar; Congress Retains Aruvikkara Assembly
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday won the RK Nagar seat of Tamil Nadu Assembly defeating the nearest rival by a massive margin of 1.5 lakh votes.
The AIADMK supremo, who was leading since the beginning of the counting, was expected to win the seat easily. However, the victory margin was much more than expected, as the nearest rival – Mahendran of CPI – could manage just 9,669 votes against her 1,60,921.
In Pictures: Jayalalithaa Supporters Celebrate her Victory in RK Nagar Constituency
The counting ended around 1.10 pm.
Earlier in the day, the ruling UDF coalition won the by-poll in Aruvikkara Assembly constituency in neighbouring Kerala. Congress candidate KA Sabarinathan won the seat by more than 10,000 votes.
While Sabarinathan polled 56,448 votes, LDF's M Vijayakumar could secure only 46,320 votes in the 27 June by-election from Aruvikkara in Thiruvananthapuram. The Congress had fielded Sabarinathan in the by-polls following the death of its sitting MLA G Karthikeyan.
Tamil Nadu Live Updates:
1:10 pm: J Jayalalithaa wins the by-elections with 1,60,921 votes and her nearest rival CPI leader Mahendran managed to get only 9,669 votes.
Tamil Nadu Governor congratulates Jayalalithaa on her victory in RK Nagar (Chennai): ANI
TN CM Jayalalithaa won in RK Nagar (Chennai) with over one lakh fifty thousand votes: ANI
12:38 pm: The 14th round of vote counting ends, Jayalallithaa secures 1,35,517 votes and CPI leader Mahendran remains much behind AIADMK supremo with just 8,097 votes.
12:20 pm: After 13th round of vote counting, Jayalalithaa leads with 1,26,666 votes while CPI leader Mahendran secures only 7,765 votes.
11:57 am: Five more rounds of counting is left to officially announce J Jayalalithaa as the winner of RK Nagar assembly by-polls.
11:53 am: As 12th round of counting ends, Jayalalithaa secures 1,18,043 votes while CPI leader Mahendran gets only 7,215.
11:21 am: Ninth round of voting ends, Jayalalithaa leads with 86,564 votes and CPI leader Mahendran gets 4,876.
11:06 am: Eighth round of vote counting underway at Queen Mary's College.
11:03 am: As seventh round of vote counting ends, J Jayalalithaa leads the by-poll results with 67,899 votes. CPI leader Mahendran secures only 4,876 votes.
10:40 am: Of the total 17 rounds of counting, seventh is underway.
10:36 am: Sixth round of vote counting ends and Jayalalithaa secures 58,297 votes. CPI leader Mahendran gets 4,349 and independent candidate KR Ramaswamy gets, 1,020.
10:30 am: Sixth round of counting underway.
10:24 am: After the fifth round of counting, Jayalalithaa gets 49,000 votes her rival CPI leader Mahendran secures only 3,713 votes.
10:18 am: Fourth round of vote counting ends, Jayalalithaa secures 38,406 votes while Mahendran gets 2,809 votes, according to IBN Live report.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister is all set to achieve a massive victory in RK Nagar constituency, from where she contested the assembly by-polls, voting for which took place on 27 June.
She is leading by more than 8,000 votes in the first round of the counting. The counting has to go through a total of 17 rounds before the fate of the candidates is decided. However, the current status suggests a clear win for the AIADMK leader.
While Jayalalithaa has so far garnered 9,562 votes (including postal votes) in the first round, her nearest rival CPI leader C Mahendran secured only 930 votes. Independent candidate KR Ramaswamy, popularly known as 'Traffic Ramaswamy', got 289 votes.
A total of 11,188 votes were counted in the first round, out of which, 174 had NOTA (none of the above).
Supporters of Jayalalithaa are already celebrating outside her residence.
The counting started at 8 am on Tuesday at Queen Mary's College amid heavy securityThe Times of India reported.
Voting for assembly by-elections for Radhakrishnan Nagar took place on Saturday. The by-poll witnessed 74.4% turnout as around 2,50,000 voters exercised their franchise, IANS reports.
