Jayalalithaa sworn in as MLA from RK Nagar

The Tamil Nadu chief minister earlier this week won the by-election by 150,722 votes

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was sworn-in as an MLA on Saturday. She had won the RK Nagar constituency by a huge margin this week.  

The Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary had polled 160,432 votes, while her nearest rival Communist Party of India's C Mahendran got just 9,710 votes. The constituency has 245,000 voters and Jayalalithaa bagged more than 50 per cent of the votes. This time the polling percentage was higher at around 74 per cent.

This is the seventh bypoll victory for AIADMK ever since it came to power in 2011.

Although there were 28 candidates in the fray, only Mahendran was viewed as a serious opponent for Jaya. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) too supported Mahendran.

Other opposition parties, including AIADMK's main rival DMK, PMK, DMDK, Congress, BJP and MDMK stayed away from the contest.

The RK Nagar seat fell vacant after AIADMK's Vetrivel resigned to facilitate Jayalalithaa's re-election to the Assembly.

Jaya, elected from Srirangam in 2011, lost her seat and the chief minister's post after a trial court in Bengaluru convicted her in the disproportionate assets case.

The Karnataka High Court upheld her appeal and acquitted her of all charges. After the acquittal, Jaya was again sworn-in as the chief minister. The Karnataka government has appealed against the high court order in the Supreme Court.