Jai ho Jayalalithaa

CPI-M retains Tripura seats, BJP displaces Cong to second spot; Cong wins Kerala, Meghalaya seats; BJP holds on to Garoth seat in MP

Chennai: AIADMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday recorded an impressive victory in the R K Nagar by-election with a margin of 1,50,722 votes, trouncing her nearest CPI rival C Mahendran (9,710) who forfeited his deposit like other contestants.

Expressing joy and thanking the electorate for giving her a huge victory, Jayalalithaa said, "It is a historic win, I assure that I will tirelessly work to fulfil the voters' expectations, and needs."

The by-election was necessitated following AIADMK's P Vetrivel vacating the seat in May, apparently to enable Jayalalithaa seek re-election.

She had to fulfil the constitutional requirement of getting elected as MLA within six months of becoming Chief Minister.

As of now, the Karnataka government approached the Supreme Court challenging the Karnataka High Court's ruling in Jayalalithaa's acquittal.

Tripura's ruling CPI-M on Tuesday retained both the assembly seats as the BJP edged out the Congress to take the second spot.

The party won from Pratapgarh for the ninth consecutive time and won in Surma for the eighth time in a row.

In Pratapgarh, Ramu Das defeated his BJP rival Mousumi Das by 17,326 votes.

In Surma, CPI-M contender Anjan Das routed BJP's Ashish Das by 15,309 votes.

The Congress-led United Democratic Front has won the Aruvikkara assembly by-poll in Kerala.

K S Sabrinathan (Congress) of the UDF has won with a huge margin of 10,128 votes.

The BJP, which has so far failed to open an account in the Kerala Assembly, continued its losing spree in Aruvikkara assembly bypoll, but managed to increase its vote share with its candidate securing 34,145 votes.

The number of votes received by Rajagopal is significant when compared to the 7,694 votes received by the party candidate in the 2011 assembly elections and 14,890 in the segment during the Lok Sabha polls in 2014.

Ruling Congress won the Chokpot Assembly by-poll in Meghalaya with Blubell R Sangma defeating her nearest rival Philipole Marak of National People's Party by a margin of 2,550 votes.

While Blubell R Sangma secured 8,042 votes, Philipole Marak secured 5,492 votes, state election office said.

With considerable ease, the ruling BJP defeated the Congress in an important by-election in MP at a time when the government is accused of a major corruption scam by the Opposition.

The BJP's Chander Singh Sisodia defeated Congress candidate Subhash Sajotiya by nearly 14,000 votes in the by-election for the assembly seat of Garoth in the western part of the state.

In March, the BJP's Rajesh Yadav, the legislator from here, passed away.