Chief Minister Jayalalithaa won the Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly by-poll in style with a record margin of over 1.50 lakh votes.
With no serious opposition in the fray, she secured an unprecedented 88.43 per cent of the votes polled. It was a record of sorts for her in terms of votes polled and victory margin. All the 27 contestants lost deposit. CPI senior leader C. Mahendran polled a meagre 9,710 votes. Securing all the postal votes, Ms. Jayalalithaa led with a high margin from the first round to 17th round of counting.
Thanking the electorate for respecting her words and reposing faith in her with a “historic victory”, she reiterated that the by-poll was a precursor to the Assembly elections (due next year).
Recalling Perarignar Anna’s words that only movements with people as capital survive time to hold fort and shine, Ms. Jayalalithaa said her victory has proven it. She, however, did not take oath as an MLA on Tuesday.
