The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) candidate, A. K. Bose, who registered a comfortable victory in the by-poll held for Thirupparankundram Assembly constituency with a margin of 42, 670 votes, was ahead right from the beginning.
Out of the 2,03,110 votes polled, the AIADMK bagged 1,13,032, DMK 70,362, BJP 6930 and DMDK polled 4105 votes.
There were 28 candidates in the fray and except the DMK all others lost their deposit.
The by-poll was necessitated by the death of AIADMK candidate S.M. Seenivelu even before taking oath as an MLA in May 2016.
In the election held on November 19, a little over two lakh voters cast their votes, out of an electorate of 2.81 lakh.
The counting, which was held at the Madurai Medical College, commenced at 8 a.m. After counting the postal ballots, the officials began counting of the votes.
Announcing the final tally, Collector and Election Officer K. Veera Raghava Rao handed over the declaration certificate to Mr. Bose in the presence of General Observer U.V. Jose, Returning Officer Jeeva and others.
Outside the counting centre, led by Ministers Sellur K. Raju, R.B. Udhayakumar and K. Pandiarajan, MLA and district secretary V.V. Rajan Chellappa and other functionaries presented shawls to the MLA-elect Mr. Bose. In a brief address, Mr. Bose said that on behalf of the party supremo (Amma) he thanked the voters and attributed the victory to the good work done by the government.
In many parts of Madurai, AIADMK cadres distributed sweets and burst crackers.
The DMK candidate, Dr. Saravanan, polled 34.6 per cent votes, which is 1.1 per cent less than the party’s , tally in the May-2016 poll. A political observer said that whoever paid more money had won the election. He alleged that the Election Commission had remained silent despite media reports of cash for votes in the constituency.
The BJP candidate, R. Srinivasan, stood ahead of the DMDK party in all the 21 rounds. The number of NOTA voters stood at a meagre 1024.
