In a major upset for the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, TTV Dhinakaran, who was ousted from the party, won the RK Nagar by-poll with a huge margin of more than 40,000 votes.
Dhinakaran contested as an independent candidate and routed the ruling party’s senior leader, E Madhusudhanan, relegating him to a distant second. Dhinakaran won more than 89,000 votes, against over 40,000 votes polled by the AIADMK candidate. Over 1.76 lakh voters voted in the by-poll held on December 21 in the North Chennai constituency.
The main opposition party DMK’s candidate Marudhu Ganesh fell to third place with 24, 651 votes and forfeited his deposit. The other notable candidate, BJP’s Karu Nagarajan, also lost his deposit, with just 1,417 votes. The NOTA option got 2,373 votes.
The by-poll saw a total of 59 candidates contesting for the Assembly seat. Except for the top two contestants, all others forfeited their deposits.
The result is not entirely surprising as reports from the field had indicated that Dhinakaran was the favourite. However, his victory marks a new flashpoint in the ongoing struggle for power within the AIADMK.
The by-poll was held to fill the vacancy caused by the death of AIADMK general secretary and former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in December 2016. Her demise also sparked a struggle for power within the party.
The result comes as a shocker for Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, who had ousted Dhinakaran and his aunt VK Sasikala, the general secretary of the party. She is now serving a four-year jail term after being convicted in a disproportionate assets case.
The by-poll for the constituency was seen as a referendum on which faction of the AIADMK has the people’s support and considered Jayalalithaa’s successor.
On the memorial circuit
After his win became a certainty early in the afternoon, Dhinakaran sent out a clear message by first going to the memorial of the AIADMK founder and former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran and then to Jayalalithaa’s memorial to pay his respects.
Earlier, in an initial interaction with mediapersons, he commented: “People want a change.”
The RK Nagar by-poll was finally held after an earlier attempt was rescinded by the Election Commission in April. At that time the authorities had said that there had been rampant bribing of voters. This time, too, parties had traded charges of voter bribery.