Puducherry: Continuing with its spectacular electoral debut of the 2011 Assembly polls, ruling AINRC in Puducherry on Friday wrested the lone Lok Sabha seat from Congress with its nominee R Radhakrishnan trouncing Minister of State in PMO V Narayanasamy.
Radhakrishnan, former Assembly speaker, won by a margin of 60,854 votes, polling 2,55,826 votes against Narayanasamy`s 1,94,972 votes, pushing the AIADMK and DMK to the third and fourth places.
Although initially the trend showed that Narayanasamy was ahead of Radhakrishnan by about 9,000 votes, there was a sudden reverse with the AINRC candidate forging ahead.
AINRC, floated by Rangasamy ahead of 2011 elections after breaking away from Congress, contested the multi-cornered Lok Sabha poll in alliance with BJP.
PMK which too contested the polls despite being a partner of NDA in Tamil Nadu finished a poor fifth.
A bitter critic of Chief Minister N Rangasamy, Narayanasamy used to attack the government on various occasions and at fora.
But Rangasamy has emerged the victor in the end, marking the first ever victory of a regional party in Parliamentary poll within a few years of its formation.
Puducherry was normally considered a Congress bastion although the party had lost the Parliamentarly elections held in 1974, 1977 and in 1998.
Radhakrishnan attributed his victory largely due to the welfare schemes of the AINRC government under Rangasamy`s leadership.
