Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate Latha Adhyaman won the by-poll in the Tirumangalam assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu on Monday by nearly 40,000 votes.
While Adhyaman got 79,422 votes, her nearest rival All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's Muthuramalingam got 40,156 votes.
With the win, the DMK added one more seat to its tally in the 234-member state assembly, as its strength rose to 97 including Speaker R Avudiappan.
In the 2006 assembly poll, DMK lost the seat to Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam when its nominee Veera Ilavarasan won the seat by a margin of over 3,500 votes. The seat was vacant after Ilavarasan died following a cardiac arrest last year.
Reacting to the DMK's victory, party leader and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi in Chennai described the result as a "reward for the achievements" of his government.
"It was also an indicator of the party's future in the Lok Sabha polls. If the DMK had lost, the opposition might have interpreted it negatively," he said.
The AIADMK, which wanted to test its popularity, requested its ally MDMK to leave the seat for it. AIADMK was strengthened with the Communist Party of India Marxist and the Communist Party of India putting their weight behind the main opposition, after leaving the DMK front.
For the DMK-led front, it was a hattrick, as it has won all three bypolls held after the 2006 assembly polls. DMK had won Madurai West, while its ally Congress wrested Madurai central from AIADMK, when its nominee K S Rajendran won.
In Tirumangalam bypoll, T Dhanpandian, candidate of actor-turned-politician Vijaykant's Tamizhaga Dravida Mukkal Katchi, managed just 13,186 votes and lost his deposit. Padmanabhan of the All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi, headed by yet another actor-turned-politician Saratkumar, also lost his deposit.
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