AIADMK general secretary J.Jayalalithaa became the first chief minister to get elected for a successive term since 1984.
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“I am with the people and the people of Tamil Nadu are with me”, Jayalalithaa said while addressing a large group of ecstatic AIADMK workers after her party’s superlative results. -Ms Jayalalithaa is all set to assume office as CM for a record sixth time-a feat no one has achieved thus far.
DMK had won 96 seats and with the support of allies like Congress (which had won 34 seats) the Karunanidhi-led party managed to sail through. DMK used all its TV networks under its control with powerful TVCs against the AIADMK.
But Jayalalithaa retained her Radhakrishnan Nagar constitutency in the city, trouncing the DMK by 39,545 votes. As of 09.40 a.m., the AIADMK was leading in 101 seats, while opposition DMK-Congress combine was ahead in 68 seats in Tamil Nadu.
In a letter thanking BJP president Amit Shah for his congratulatory letter, she said: “I thank you for congratulating me on the resounding victory in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Election, 2016”. Invitations are being sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, top BJP leaders and chief ministers of states ruled by parties other than the Congress. For DMK, people have given us a better position than what they gave in 2011.
The party is confident that the DMK would accommodate at least one Congress nominee, who, sources say, could be former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. Female voters outstripped men by more than 4 lakhs this time, and while many parties tried to mobilise them with talk of prohibition, it is valuable to remember that they form the traditional vote bank of the AIADMK.
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In the two Tamil Nadu constituencies of Thanjavur and Aravakurichi, where the Election Commission deferred the polls to May 23, the Income-Tax Department initiated investigations to identify the candidates allegedly involved in distributing money.
