AIADMK retains Srirangam seat with thumping majority

Chennai, Feb 16: Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK Monday retained the Srirangam assembly constituency in the bye-election with a huge margin over archrival DMK. AIADMK candidate S.Valarmathi polled 151,561 votes while DMK's N.Anand secured 55,045. Valarmathi was in a comfortable lead right from the beginning as counting began this morning. The assembly seat was earlier held by former chief minister J.Jayalalithaa and the bye-election was necessitated following her disqualification after her conviction in a corruption case and sentence of four years in jail. In a statement issued here, Jayalalithaa thanked the voters of Srirangam for electing her party's candidate.