As anticipated the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) won the assembly by-election to the prestigious Srirangam constituency of Tamil Nadu, earlier held by the party chief J Jayalalithaa. However, the margin of winning was huge. AIADMK won by a margin of over 90,000 votes.

A sympathy wave triggered by Jayalalithaa’s conviction may be one reason for such margin of win.

The Srirangam seat fell vacant after Jayalalithaa was disqualified from contesting elections for ten years as a result of a court verdict on charges of owning assets disproportionate to her income. The election to the seat was held on February 13.

 The vote count was 1,51,561 for AIADMK; 55,044 for DMK; BJP secured 5015; CPI (M) secured 1,552 and 1,919 votes were Nota.

Meanwhile, in other byelections too there were no surprises. The BJP retained both Panaji in Goa and Mukhed in Maharashtra, TMC retained Krishnaganj assembly seat and established massive lead in Bangaon Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal, the Tirupati seat in Andhra Pradesh was retained by Telugu Desam party and the Congress retained Liromoba in Arunachal Pradesh.

Ruling Trinamool Congress on Monday emerged victorious in Krishnaganj bypolls in West Bengal. Giving a tough fight to CPI-M's Apurba Biswas, Trinamool candidate Satyajit Biswas secured 95,397 votes and won by around 40,000 votes. The former got got 58,398 votes. In Bongaon (SC) Lok Sabha seat, TMC candidate Mamatabala Thakur is ahead of her nearest BJP rival Subrata Saha by 84,000 votes after seventh round of counting.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday congratulated M Suguna, wife of late M Venkataramana, for winning the Tirupati by-elections by a margin of 1,16,524 votes in the state. The Chief Minister said the victory was the result of people’s response to the TDP Government’s programmes in the last eight months.

The ruling BJP has won the Panaji assembly constituency bypoll, retaining the seat that was held
by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar since 1994. BJP candidate Siddharth Kuncolienkar (9,989 votes)  won the by-election by a margin of 5,368 votes defeating his immediate rival and Congress nominee Surendra Furtado (4,621 votes.).

The BJP candidate Dr. Tushar Rathod, son of Govind Rathod, whose death last October necessitated the bye-election, has won the Mukhed Assembly seat by defeating his nearest Congress rival Hanumantrao Patil Betmogrekar by 47,248 votes.

 Rathod secured 1,00,319 votes and the Congress candidate polled 53,071 votes. Rathod’s victory will increase the BJP’s strength from 121 legislators to 122 legislators in the Maharashtra Assembly.

Meanwhile, the Congress has retained the Liromoba Assembly seat with its candidate Nyamar Karbak defeating his BJP rival by a slender margin of 119 votes. While Karbak polled 3,808 votes, BJP nominee Bai Gadi polled 3,689 votes followed by Independent candidates Lijum Ronya (2,589), Lijum Ronya, Raksap Yomcha (355) and Johny Tali (40 votes). Nine voters also opted for NOTA.