The ruling AIADMK pulled off an emphatic victory in the Alandur Assembly by-election, recording a margin of victory of 18,000 votes.
By winning this election, it has wrested the seat from DMDK.
The victorious candidate of AIADMK, V.N.P. Venkatraman, secured 89,295 votes, and defeated his nearest rival R.S. Bharathi of DMK by a margin of 18,708 votes. M. Kamaraja of DMDK was polled 20,442 votes, while Congress nominee, Nanjil V. Eswara Prasad, could secure only 6,535 votes.
Aam Aadmi Party’s Gnani Sankaran was polled 5,729 votes, while ‘none of the above’ (NOTA) option secured 4,248 votes.
Mr. Venkatraman, who recorded a lead of over 392 votes in the first round itself, widened the margin throughout the 23 rounds of counting held in Sriperumbudur on Friday.
The by-election was caused by the resignation of incumbent MLA and veteran Panruti S. Ramachandran, elected on a DMDK ticket in the 2011 Assembly polls.
In 2011, Mr. Ramachandran defeated K. Gayathri Devi of the Congress by 5,754 votes.
The mood was upbeat among AIADMK party cadre as the trends were out by 11 a.m. and many of them celebrated the victory by distributing sweets, chocolates and bursting firecrackers across the constituency.
