Chennai, Dec 23 (Inditop.com) Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK Wednesday won by a comfortable margin in two assembly constituencies where by-polls were held Dec 19, the Election Commission said.
Anita Radhakrishnan, the party’s candidate for the Tiruchendur assembly seat secured more than 46,000 votes over AIADMK rival while DMK’s Vandavasi candidate Kamalakannan won with a margin of around 38,000 votes.
While AIADMK’s candidates came second in both the constituencies, Vijayakant’s DMDK lost deposits on both the seats.
Both the constituencies witnessed high voter turnout with Tiruchendur polling 78 percent of the votes and Vandavasi 84 percent.
The by-polls were a hi-tech affair with the Election Commission matching the images of voters captured on the web camera installed in the polling booths with those stored in its servers to eliminate bogus voting.
Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta monitored the counting of votes from Chennai through web camera.
With these two wins, DMK’s strength in the assembly goes up to 99 including Speaker R. Avudaiappan.
The party will aim to reach the century mark in January when by-poll for Ponnagaram will be held.
DMK Chief and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has attributed the party’s victory to the state government’s performance.
Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said the result was on expected lines while his brother and union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers M.K. Alagiri expressed his happiness at the results.
Meanwhile, AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa, in a statement here, thanked the voters of Tiruchendur and Vandavasi and said that the DMK won using money and muscle power with the central government and the Election Commission turning a blind eye.
