AIADMK retains Srirangam seat with thumping majority

IANS/ChennaiTamil Nadu’s ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party yesterday retained the Srirangam assembly constituency in a by-election with a huge margin over archrival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.AIADMK candidate S Valarmathi polled 151,561 votes while DMK’s N Anand secured 55,045.Valarmathi was in a comfortable lead right from the beginning as counting began in the morning.The assembly seat was earlier held by former chief minister J Jayalalithaa and the by-election was necessitated following her disqualification after her conviction in a corruption case and sentence of four years in jail.In a statement issued here, Jayalalithaa thanked the voters of Srirangam for electing her party’s candidate.In Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) retained the Tirupati seat with a massive majority of over 100,000 votes, dashing all hopes of the Congress Party to open its account in the state assembly.Riding on sympathy wave, M Suguna of the ruling party won the by-election, caused by the death of her husband M Venkatramna.She defeated R Sreedevi of the Congress by 116,524 votes.Of 147,216 votes polled, Suguna bagged 126,152.All other candidates including Sreedevi of the Congress lost their deposits.The Congress candidate finished a poor second with just 9,628 votes.Suguna’s massive victory dashed all hopes of the Congress for revival of its fortunes in the state.The Congress had no representation in the assembly. It drew a blank in general elections held in May last year as people vent their ire on the party for splitting the state.The main opposition YSR Congress party did not field a candidate in Tirupati to reciprocate the TDP’s gesture in not contesting the Allagadda assembly seat.The TDP had won 102 seats in the 175-member assembly in elections held last year.Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu congratulated Suguna for the massive victory. Naidu, who is also the TDP chief, said the result show the confidence people have in the government.Meanwhile in Goa, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Sidharth Kunkolienkar won the Panaji by-election, defeating the Congress candidate by 5,368 votes.Four candidates were in the race that was necessitated after the elevation of then sitting legislator and former chief minister Manohar Parrikar as the defence minister in November last year.Voting was held on February 13.