'Two Leaves' is with 'villains' AIADMK: Dhinakaran after RK Nagar by-polls win

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], Dec 24 (ANI): Hours after winning the RK Nagar by-polls as an independent candidate, sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran on Sunday said the two leaves symbol was a victory symbol when it was with Amma (former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa), but is now with 'the villains,' and that is why, they could not win the election.

"Two leaves symbol was a victory symbol when it was with Amma, but now it's with the villains, so how can they win it?" TTV Dhinakaran said, addressing the media here.

Dhinakaran, who lost the AIADMK symbol to the EPS-OPS faction, contested the election as an independent candidate and was allotted a 'pressure cooker' symbol.

Calling his win 'a victory for all,' he further took a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), stating that NOTA (None Of The Above) won more seats than the party.

Sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran on Sunday won the RK Nagar by-polls by a margin of 40,707 votes.

The key candidates in the fray were Madhusudhanan, Dhinakaran, Ganesh and Nagarajan.

Dhinakaran got 89,013 votes while AIADMK's E Madhusudhanan secured 48,306 votes. DMK candidate N Maruthu Ganesh got 24,651 votes, while BJP's Karu Nagarajan amassed 1417 votes.

Dhinakaran secured 50.32 per cent of the 1,76,890 votes polled.

The RK Nagar constituency went to polls on December 21, necessitated by the death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa in December last year.

The election was speculated to be a litmus test for the leadership of O Panneerselvam and E Palanisamy, who took over the reins of AIADMK after her.

The election was earlier scheduled on April 12, but was cancelled following an alleged vote-for-cash scam. (ANI)