LIVE: Jayalalithaa wins in RK Nagar with a margin of over 1.5 lakh votes, Congress takes Aruvikkara

Read: BJP cut into our votebank, admits CPI(M)

LIVE UPDATES OF ARUVIKKARA AND RK NAGAR ELECTION RESULTS 

1: 15 pm: It’s confirmed. Jayalalithaa wins in the RK Nagar bypoll by a margin of more than 1.5 lakh votes.

12: 49 pm: Here’s the latest update from RK Nagar. The CM’s victory is guaranteed, it’s just the margin that remains to be known.

#Jayalalithaa is leading by more than 1.35 lakh votes in #RkNagarByPoll @IndianExpress

— Arun Janardhanan (@arunjei) June 30, 2015

12: 30 pm: Just getting information from some of the other byelection results across the country. In Madhya Pradesh, the ruling BJP defeated the Congress to win the Garoth Assembly seat. The margin of victory was 12,000 votes.

In Tripura, the ruling CPI(M) has won both the Pratapgarh (SC) and Surma (SC) seats.

11:34 am: After the 11th round of counting in RK Nagar, Jayalalithaa is leading by more than 1 lakh votes.

11: 30 am: By the way, here is the winning Congress candidate KS Sabarinathan in Aruvikkara with Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor.

@ShashiTharoor @INCIndia Celebrate 😀😁😂😃😄😅☺ pic.twitter.com/oiyFglmzwj

— JayasreeVijayan (@JayasreeVijayan) June 30, 2015

11: 20 am: Meanwhile, in RK Nagar in Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa has extended her lead by more than 80,000 votes. It’s now just a matter of time before her victory is announced.

10: 44 am: Aaaaand, its official. The Congress has won Aruvikkara by a margin of more than 10,000 votes. Relief for Oommen Chandy.

10: 42 am: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor says the birth of a new, young leader has taken place in Aruvikkara.

A young leader is born in Kerala, a party is vindicated. @INCIndia gains momentum heading into local govt elections in Oct, Assembly in 2016

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) June 30, 2015

Spoke to Sabari’s mother MT Sulekha & brother Ananthapadmanabhan to congratulate them on this terrific victory. @INCIndia on the march!

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) June 30, 2015

10: 39 am: The victory in Aruvikkara will be a big boost for Chief Minister Oommen Chandy who had said that the bypoll is a referendum on his government. On the other hand, it is yet another loss for the LDF which had hoped to reap gains after the state government was embattled by a series of scams.

10: 18 am: Latest trends in Aruvikkara indicate that Congress is poised for a major victory. When votes at 199 booths out of 154 were counted, Congress candidate K S Sabarinathan has a clear margin of 6,444 votes over nearest rival M Vijayakumar of CPI (M).

10: 12 am: Congress candidate KS Sabarinathan is steadily improving his margin over CPI (M) and BJP candidates. When counting was over at 80 booths out of 154 in the constituency, Congress candidate has gained a margin of 6000 votes. Sabarinathan is maintaining a clear edge over his rivals right from the beginning of counting. BJP which had got only 7697 votes in 2011, has already pocketed 15, 264 votes when counting was over only in half of the total booths.

10:10 am: In Aruvikkara, when counting of votes at 60 booths out of 154 was over, BJP candidate O Rajagopal has got 11,712 votes. In the assembly election in 2011, then BJP candidate had managed only 7694 votes in all 154 booths. BJP seems to have made considerable gains at the cost of CPI (M) votes.

10: 01 am: An update from RK Nagar now. Jaya is all headed to enter the TN Assembly with a massive lead of more than 35,000 votes. Her nearest rival has just over 2,000 votes.

9: 50 am: Leads within the first two hours have made it clear: Congress candidate KS Sabarinathan is headed for a victory with a lead of more than 6,000 votes.

9: 40 am: No huge gap in the CPM, BJP’s vote share in Aruvikkara shows that BJP has played the spoiler here. The saffron party may have wanted to open its account in the Kerala assembly with a win here, but it seems it’s wait will continue.

9: 30 am: It is a sad story for Jayalalithaa’s rivals in RK Nagar. The CPI candidate has got just around 900 votes compared to the 9,000 votes grabbed by the Tamil Nadu CM.

9: 20 am: Right from the start, Sabarinathan of the Congress has been maintaining the lead. For those not aware of the background behind this election, Sabarinathan is the son of late Congress leader G Karthikeyan, whose death necessitated the election.

Sabarinathan heading to a win in #Aruvikkara; he has earned more votes from 4 panchayats than his father Karthikeyan| http://t.co/udSloYoBgF

— Manorama Online (@manoramaonline) June 30, 2015

9: 18 am: There seems to be no stopping to Jayalalithaa in RK Nagar. Her lead swells above 9,000 votes. The CPI candidate is nowhere.

9: 17 am: Sabarinathan of the Congress is still maintaining his lead. He has gathered more than 15,000 votes and is leading by 3,000 votes.

9:00 am: The lead of the Congress candidate in the Aruvikkara bypoll now stretches beyond 2,000 votes. Poll pundits would point towards a sympathy wave responsible for this lead.

8:54 am: No surprises in RK Nagar. CM J Jayalalithaa commands a huge lead of 9,000 votes within the first hour of counting.

8: 46 am: According to the leads in Kerala, KS Sabarinathan of the Congress is leading by more than 1,500 votes.

8: 40 am: In RK Nagar in Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa’s main challenger is C. Mahendran of the CPI. Remember, the DMK had boycotted the election.

8:37 am: According to the first leads, it seems O Rajagopal of the BJP is getting a substantial number of votes, which could drastically affect the LDF’s chances. The CPM had earlier claimed that the BJP had cut into their votebank, this splitting the anti-incumbency vote. This election could be interesting.

8:00 am: Counting of votes has begun in both Aruvikkara and RK Nagar.

(With inputs from Shaju Philip from Thiruvananthapuram)