AIADMK wins all three seats, Jayalalithaa happy

Chennai, Nov 22  Tamil Nadus ruling AIADMK on Tuesday won all the three assembly by-elections, with Chief Minister and party leader J. Jayalalithaa profusely thanking the voters.

Polling was held in Thirupparankundram, Aravakkurichi and Thanjavur on Saturday. While there were other parties in the fray, the contest was mainly between the AIADMK and the DMK.

In Aravakkurichi, AIADMK's V. Senthil Balaji defeated DMK's K.C. Palanisamy while at Thirupparankundram AIADMK's A.K. Bose defeated DMK's P. Saravanan.

In Thanjavur, the AIADMK's M. Rengasamy worsted DMK's Anjugam Bhoopathy.

The Thirupparankundram by-election was necessitated by the death of the AIADMK legislator, Seenivel.

In a statement, Jayalalithaa said the election victory while she was in hospital gave her limitless happiness and enthusiasm.

"With this it is proved again that people are on my side," Jayalalithaa said.

The 68-year-old AIADMK supremo was admitted to the Apollo Hospitals with fever and dehydration on September 22.

Following the three victories, the AIADMK's strength in the 234-member house goes up to 136 (including Speaker). The DMK has 89 members, the Congress eight and the Indian Union Muslim League one.