AIADMK wins Pudukottai by-election in Tamil Nadu

Chennai June 15 (IANS) The ruling AIADMK Friday increased its tally in Tamil Nadu assembly with its candidate Karthik Thondaiman winning the Pudukottai by-election by a large margin.

Securing 101,998 votes, Thondaiman defeated his nearest rival N. Jahir Hussain of Desiya Murpokku Dravidar Kazhagam (DMDK) by a margin of 71,498 votes. Hussain polled 30,500 votes.

In a statement issued here, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary J. Jayalalithaa thanked the people of Pudukottai for voting in favour of her party's candidate based on her government's achievements.

Referring to the 71 percent votes secured by her party in the assembly by-election, Jayalalithaa said there was an increase of 24 percent in her party's vote share. She said in 2011 general elections, the Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate had got 47 percent of the total votes.

Thondaiman was in the lead by a comfortable margin after the counting started Friday morning.

The by-poll held Tuesday saw around 73 percent of the over 195,000 electors casting their votes to choose their representative from 20 candidates in the fray.

The by-election in Pudukottai, about 350 km from here, was necessitated by the death of CPI legislator S.P. Muthukumaran in a road accident in April.

It was a straight fight between the ruling AIADMK and the DMDK after the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam and the CPI decided to boycott the poll.

With this victory, AIADMK has 151 members (including the speaker) in Tamil Nadu assembly, followed by the DMDK's 29, the DMK's 23, the Communist Party of India-Marxist's 10, the CPI's eight, the Congress party's five and the PMK's three, among others.