Jayalalithaa takes oath as legislator

 

Chennai, July 4  Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on Saturday took oath as a member of the legislative assembly after winning the bye-election held for the Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency.

According to a government statement, Jayalalithaa took oath in the chambers of Speaker P. Dhanapal.

Jayalalithaa won the bye-election by a huge margin, with major opposition parties like the DMK, the DMDK and others boycotting the poll on various pretexts.

Jayalalithaa polled 160,432 votes, while her nearest rival, Communist Party of India's C. Mahendran got just 9,710 votes -- a victory margin of a whopping 150,722 votes.

The Radhakrishnan Nagar seat fell vacant after AIADMK's P. Vetrivel resigned from the house to facilitate Jayalalithaa's re-election to the assembly.

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

The Karnataka High Court in May upheld her appeal and acquitted her of all charges.

Jayalalithaa was again sworn in as chief minister, but had to get elected to the assembly within six months.

The Karnataka government has gone on appeal against the high court order in the Supreme Court.