Chennai, Oct 12:
TVK MLAs Maragatham Kumaravel and Sathyabama, who won the by-elections in Madurantakam and Dharapuram constituencies respectively, were sworn in as Members of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly at the Secretariat here on Monday.
Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar administered the oath of office to the two legislators in his chamber in the presence of Ministers N. Anand, K. Sengottaiyan, Aadhav Arjuna and others.
Maragatham Kumaravel won the Madurantakam constituency by a margin of 20,040 votes, while Sathyabama secured victory in Dharapuram with a margin of 9,471 votes.
After the ceremony, the two MLAs jointly addressed the media. Maragatham Kumaravel thanked Chief Minister and TVK leader Vijay for giving her an opportunity to contest the by-election. She alleged that opposition parties had resorted to false propaganda and personal attacks against her following her resignation, but claimed that these campaigns had failed to influence voters.
“During the 20 days of campaigning, we faced numerous allegations and false propaganda. They spoke disparagingly about us without even sparing a thought for the fact that we are women. The DMK and AIADMK together subjected us to mental distress,” she alleged.
She said voters had given her another opportunity in Madurantakam by considering the Chief Minister’s leadership. Expressing happiness over being elected from the constituency for the third time, she promised to address the needs of the people and work for the constituency’s development.
Responding to a question about the decline in vote share, Maragatham Kumaravel alleged that accusations relating to her resignation and horse-trading had been repeatedly raised against her during the campaign. She further claimed that TVK had won the by-election without distributing even a rupee to voters. Alleging irregularities in postal voting, she claimed that postal ballots had been purchased by paying money. These allegations were made by her while addressing reporters.
She also thanked the leaders and functionaries of the alliance parties for working towards the candidates’ victory in the by-elections.
Sathyabama, the newly elected MLA from Dharapuram, credited her victory entirely to Chief Minister Vijay and thanked the people of the constituency for their support.
Describing the victory as a historic achievement won on a battlefield, she said people were celebrating the result and believed that the new government had brought hope for a better future. She assured voters that steps would be taken to resolve the drinking water problem in Dharapuram.