Chennai: Sathyabama and Maragatham Kumaravel, who won the by-elections in the Dharapuram and Madurantakam constituencies on behalf of TVK, were sworn in as MLAs.
In the Assembly general election held in Tamil Nadu last April, Sathyabama (Dharapuram) and Maragatham Kumaravel (Madurantakam), who contested on behalf of the AIADMK, won. After that, they resigned from those posts and joined the TVK party. Subsequently, by-elections were held in the two constituencies of Madurantakam and Dharapuram on October 6.
Sathyabama and Maragatham Kumaravel contested as TVK candidates in the Dharapuram and Madurantakam constituencies. The election results were announced on the 9th of last month. In the Madurantakam constituency, Maragatham Kumaravel won by a margin of 20,040 votes, and in the Dharapuram constituency, Sathyabama won by a margin of 9,471 votes.
Following this, Legislative Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar administered the oath of office to them yesterday at the Secretariat. Both MLAs read the oath and assumed office as MLAs. During this event, Ministers N. Anand, K.A. Sengottaiyan, CTR. Nirmalkumar, Rajmohan, Ko.Ka. Aadhav Arjuna, Arunraj, Ne. Mariyavilsan, P. Venkataramanan, Assembly Secretary R. Shanti, and several others participated. After taking office, the two MLAs met Chief Minister Vijay in person and received his greetings.
Following this, MLAs Maragatham Kumaravel and Sathiyabama told reporters: We thank Chief Minister Vijay for giving us the opportunity to contest the by-election, and we thank the people of the constituency who voted for us and made us win.
All the postal votes were bought with money. We have overcome all of that and won. Seeing the Chief Minister’s face, the people have given us another chance. The people are celebrating this victory. He said this.
Currently, the strength of TVK MLAs in the Legislative Assembly has risen to 109. Even if it continues in power with the support of alliance parties including Congress and VCK, TVK will undertake continued efforts to secure an absolute majority. By-elections still need to be held in 5 constituencies. Delays are occurring in them due to court cases. Therefore, the by-elections in the next 5 constituencies will serve as a test of strength for TVK.
