Dinakaran wins prestigious RK Nagar seat

Neither the AIADMK nor the DMK, but the ousted All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader TTV Dinakaran won the by-election in Chennai’s Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly constituency on Sunday by a huge margin of 40,707 votes. This was Jayalalithaa’s constituency and was bitterly fought for by all parties, claiming the legacy of the late former Chief Minister of TN.

Dinakaran, the nephew of Sasikala, now serving prison sentence in Bengaluru claimed, “We are the true AIADMK. The people of RK Nagar have elected Amma’s successor.”

NOTA votes were more than the BJP votes

Dinakaran received 89,013 votes, while AIADMK candidate E Madhusudhanan got 48,306 votes. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s N Marudhu Ganesh forfeited his deposit, winning only 24,651 votes. More people opted for the None of The Above option(NOTA) – 2,373 votes –much higher than the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate Karu Nagarajan, who polled only 1,417 votes, showing the poor base the BJP has in Tamil Nadu.