Mayor's Daughter Won In 62 Ward Saibaba Colony Elections
The Congress retained Ward 62 by winning the by-election to it that was held on February 27. Mayor R. Venkatachalam’s daughter R. Gayatri won the by-election by defeating V. Azhagammal, an Independent, by over 900 votes. Of the total 8,465 votes in the ward, 4,260 were polled. Of these, Ms. Gayatri polled 2,364 and Ms. Azhagammal 1,439. The other contestant, K. Chandra polled only 457 votes. In fact, the bypoll was held following the death of Ms. Chandra’s mother-in-law, Lalitha Pasupathy, who won from that ward as a Congress candidate in the 2006 civic body elections.
Ms. Chandra was among five aspirants from the Congress. The party’s ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had decided not to contest the byelection as the ward had already been held by the Congress. With both the parties deciding to field Ms. Gayatri, Ms. Chandra decided to contest as an Independent. But, the Kongu Vellala Gounder Peravai declared support for her. Soon, the other Opposition parties in the Corporation Council also backed her.
“We won despite the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Bharatiya Janata Party campaigning for Ms. Chandra,” Mayor R. Venkatachalam told presspersons on Monday, soon after the results were declared.
“Even the Communists joined the BJP to fight against our candidate,” Leader of the Opposition and DMK member in the Council V.N. Udayakumar said. The Mayor said Ward 62 was above politics and its people’s votes were only for development. Mr. Venkatachalam won from this ward in 1996 and 2001. In 2006, he shifted to Ward 63 as Ward 62 was reserved for a woman candidate. On the criticism that two neighbouring wards belonged to the members of the same family, the Mayor replied: “That is the desire of the voters.”
Staff Reporter adds from Tirupur: K. Krishnamoorthy defeated P. Nachimuthu by a margin of 235 votes in the by-polls held to the post of a ward member (Ward 3) at Muthalipalayam village panchayat under Tirupur block, after the counting was completed here on Monday. A total of 1,187 people cast their votes during the by-elections held on February 27. Of the total votes polled, Mr. Krishnamoorthy secured 707 votes and Mr. Nachimuthu got 472 votes while the remaining votes were declared invalid.
