Chennai: Capitalising on the boycott by main
opposition AIADMK, the DMK-led DPA on Friday expectedly swept the
by-polls to five Tamil Nadu Assembly seats, trouncing
actor-politician Vijaykant's DMDK by impressive margins.
DMK candidates won in Cumbum, Burgur and Ilayankudi while
the party's principal ally Congress emerged victorious in
Srivaikuntam and Thondamuthur.
The combine wrested Cumbum and Thondamuthur from MDMK,
which along with PMK toed their alliance lead partner AIADMK's
boycott line. Burgur was held by AIADMK. DMK and Congress
retained Illayankudi and Srivaikuntam respectively.
AIADMK, MDMK and PMK had boycotted the polls claiming
they would not be "free and fair" with the DMK and Congress
ruling at the state and Centre, besides citing "vulnerability
of EVMs to tampering", making it virtually a no contest race.
The fledgling DMDK failed to live up to the image it
sought to project as an alternative to the principal Dravidian
parties -- DMK and AIADMK and had to be content with the
runner-up position.
Defying their front leader AIADMK's boycott decision,
CPI(M) and CPI contested four seats but ended up forfeiting
even deposits in all. BJP too lost deposits in all five
segments.
For DMK, N Ramakrishnan defeated his nephew and DMDK
candidate Arunkumar by a margin of over 57,000 votes in
Cumbum, while KRK Narasimhan and Suba.Mathiarasan romped home
against V Chandran and Azhaghu Balakrishnan (DMDK) in Bargur
and Illayankudi by over 58,000 and 41,000 votes respectively.
Congress' M N Kandasamy triumphed over his DMDK opponent
Thangavelu by more than 70,000 votes in Thondamuthur and his
party colleague M B Sudalaiyandi defeated DMDK's M
Soundarapandi by over 31,000 votes in Srivaikuntam.
Today's victory has pushed up DMK's strength in the
234-member Assembly to 98 and that of Congress, supporting it
from outside, to 35.
Reacting to the outcome, DMK president and Chief Minister
M Karunanidhi said it was a result of achievements of the UPA
and state governments.
He said the people had rejected the AIADMK's boycott call
and credited the victory to the hard work by his partymen.
The by-elections were necessitated either by resignations
or death of sitting members.
The by-poll outcome comes after the good showing by the
DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance in the May 13 Lok
Sabha polls in which it won 27 seats, leaving the AIADMK-led
front with just 12 seats.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, August 21, 2009, 15:02