CHENNAI/COIMBATORE: Ruling TVK’s candidates, Maragatham Kumaravel and P Sathyabama, on Friday won the Madurantakam and Dharapuram byelections in Tamil Nadu respectively. Maragatham won with a margin of 19,241votes while Sathyabama emerged victorious with a margin of 9,471 votes.In Madurantakam, Maragatham secured 70,916 votes while DMK candidate I Paranthaman came second with 51,675 votes and AIADMK’s Kanitha Sampath came third with 46,431 votes.In Dharapuram, Sathyabama secured 66,841 votes while DMK candidate S Suganya got 57,370 votes and AIADMK’s K Banumathi came third with 45,280 votes.The bypoll was necessitated after Maragatham and Sathyabama, who had won Maragatham Dharapuram seats as AIADMK candidates in the April assembly election, resigned as MLAs and joined the ruling TVK.With this, TVK strength rose to 109 in the 234-member assembly.Polling was held on Oct 6.
