 "Jayalalithaa re-elected to TN assembly from R K Nagar")
AIADMK General Secretary and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has returned to the Tamil Nadu assembly by a record victory margin from the Radkhakrishnan Nagar constituency here.
Jayalalithaa polled 160,432 votes while her nearest rival, Communist Party of India's (CPI) C Mahendran, got just 9,710 votes -- a victory margin of 150,722 votes.
The total electorate in the constituency was around 245,000, and Jayalalithaa bagged more than 50% of the votes. This time the polling percentage was higher at around 74%, up form 72.72 percent in 2011.
Tamil Nadu governor K Rosaiah congratulated her over her win. AIADMK activists and leaders generously distributed sweets and burst crackers to celebrate the victory of their leader.
Jayalalithaa thanked voters and AIADMK supporters for her victory and said the result was a forerunner for the 2016 assembly elections.
This is the seventh by-poll victory for AIADMK since it came to power in 2011. The party has won all the by-polls held since 2011.
While there were 28 candidates in the fray, only CPI's Mahendran was viewed as a serious opponent for Jayalalithaa. The two Left parties - CPI and CPI-M - fielded Mahendran as their joint candidate.
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Other opposition parties including AIADMK's main rival DMK, PMK, DMDK, Congress, the BJP and the MDMK stayed away from the contest.
The Radhakrishnan Nagar seat fell vacant after AIADMK's Vetrivel resigned to facilitate Jayalalithaa's re-election to the assembly.
Jayalalithaa, elected from Srirangam in 2011, lost her seat and the chief minister's post after a trial court in Bengaluru convicted her in the disproportionate assets case.
The Karnataka High Court upheld her appeal and acquitted her of all charges. Jayalalithaa was again sworn in as chief minister, but she has to get elected to the assembly within six months.
The Karnataka government has gone on appeal against the high court order in the Supreme Court.