Congress bags Puducherry seat, AIADMK inlead in TN

Chennai/Puducherry, Oct 24 (IANS) The ruling Congress in Puducherry has retained the Kamaraj Nagar Assembly seat by winning the bypoll held on October 21.Congress’ A. John Kumar won the polls with 14,782 votes, defeating his nearest rival and AINRC party nominee S. Bhuvaneswarane, who managed 7,611 votes.

The seat fell vacant after Congress legislator V. Vaithilingam was elected to the Lok Sabha in April this year.Meanwhile, in Tamil Nadu, the ruling AIADMK was leading in the Vikravandi and Nanguneri Assembly seats where bypolls were held on October 21.

The bypoll in Vikravandi was necessitated following the death of DMK legislator K. Rathamani in June, while the Nanguneri seat fell vacant after Congress legislator H. Vasantha Kumar got elected to the Lok Sabha and resigned.A total of 35 candidates are in the fray in the two seats.In Vikravandi, 23 candidates are in the fray while the main fight is between ruling AIADMK’s R. Muthamilselvan and DMK’s N. Pugazhenthi.In Nanguneri, 12 candidates are in the contest though the main fight is between AIADMK’s V. Narayanan and Congress candidate Ruby R. Manohar.

–IANSvj/arm