Even as Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa swept the RK Nagar by-poll, the five other constituencies where by-elections were held last Friday voted back to power their respective ruling party candidates.

In a shot in the arm for the UDF government in Kerala ahead of Assembly polls next year, KS Sabarinadhan of the Congress won from the Aruvikkara seat in Thiruvananthapuram by a margin of 10,128 votes, defeating his nearest rival M Vijayakumar of the LDF.

Sabarinadhan, son of former Speaker G Karthikeyan, whose death in February necessitated the by-poll, polled 56,448 votes, while Vijayakumar, a former Speaker, bagged 46,320 votes and BJP candidate and former Union Minister O Rajagopal got 34,145 votes in the fierce triangular contest. Though the BJP lost the election, it increased its vote share five-fold against its 2011 performance.

Scam charges

The poll outcome is a big relief for the four-year-old UDF government in Kerala, as the Opposition had used every opportunity to corner the government on the solar and bar bribery scams.

Attacking the CPI(M), a beaming CM Oomen Chandy said the party had insulted the electorate by alleging that the UDF had earned the victory by splurging money earned through corrupt deals and liqour.

BJP retains Garoth

The BJP retained the Garoth Assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district albeit with a reduced margin against the 2013 polls. Chander Singh Sisodia defeated the Congress’ Subhash Kumar Sojatia with a margin of 12,945 votes, an election officer said. The BJP had earlier won by a margin of 25,755 votes.

The CPI(M) won both the Pratapgarh (SC) and Surma (SC) Assembly seats by a huge margin in Tripura. Ramu Das defeated his nearest BJP rival Mousami Das by a margin of 17,326 votes in Pratapgarh while Anjan Das beat his nearest BJP rival Asish Das in Surma by a margin of 15,309 votes.

In Meghalaya, Congress candidate Blubell R Sangma won the Chokpot seat by a margin of 2,550 votes.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW