John Kumar of the Indian National Congress won the Assembly bye-election in the Kamaraj Nagar constituency in Puducherry on Thursday. He beat All India NR Congress' S Bouvanesvarane by over 7,000 votes.
Polls were held on October 21, along with bye-polls in Tamil Nadu. Congress' John Kumar polled 14,782 as against his AINRC opponent Bouvanesvarane who posted 7,611 votes. Counting of votes took place at the Motilal Nehru Government Polytechnic Institution beginning at 8 am. With the constituency having recorded 66.95 percent turnout in the polls, election officials were counting from 32 ballot units. M Praveena of the Naam Tamilar Katchi was in third place with 620 votes, while 426 voters went for the NOTA (None of the Above) option.
Prior to this, John Kumar was a special representative of the Puducherry government in New Delhi. He had been elected MLA from the Nellithope constituency in the 2016 Assembly polls in the union territory. However, he stepped down to pave way for Congress legislative party leader V Narayanasamy to contest the seat.
With this, the Congress-led Chief Minister Narayanasamy government in Puducherry now has 19 seats in the 33-member Legislative Assembly. While the Congress itself has 15 seats, they have the support of three DMK lawmakers and V Ramachandran, the independent MLA from Mahe. The Opposition, on the other hand, led by former Chief Minister N Rangaswamy has 14 MLAs: seven of the All India NR Congress, four of the AIADMK and three nominated MLAs from the BJP.
Elections were necessitated in the Kamaraj Nagar Assembly segment on account of former Puducherry Chief Minister V Vaithilingam vacating the seat. He had contested in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year and had won from the Puducherry parliamentary constituency. Contesting on behalf of the DMK-Congress combine, he defeated the All India NR Congress' Dr Narayanasamy Kesavan by a historic margin.