Sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran today took oath as MLA in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. Speaker P Dhanapal administered the oath in his chamber at around 1.45 pm.
After taking the oath, Dinakaran said, “Five to six people in the party (AIADMK) are working for own selfish motives, I warn them, they should mend their ways otherwise what happened in RK Nagar will happen to them as well.”
Dhinakaran won the RK Nagar Assembly by-poll held on December 21. Contesting as an independent candidate with the ‘cooker’ symbol, he defeated AIADMK candidate E Madhusudanan and DMK’s N Maruthu Ganesh.
Dinakaran, who got 89,013 votes, became the first Independent candidate to win a bypoll in the state, claiming 50.32 percent of the 1,76,890 votes polled. The ruling AIADMK’s veteran leader E Madhusudhanan came second with 48,306 votes, while DMK’s N Maruthu Ganesh got only 24,651 votes to forfeit his deposit.
The by-poll was necessitated due to the demise of J Jayalalithaa, who was elected from RK Nagar in the 2016 general elections, to become chief minister for a consecutive term. She died in December 2016. Yesterday, Dhinakaran met his aunt VK Sasikala at Bengaluru jail and sought her blessings.
Dhinakaran, who will debut as an MLA, is not new to electoral politics. He was elected as an MP in 1999 from Periyakulam Lok Sabha constituency and later to the Rajya Sabha in 2004.