Chennai, Oct 10 (IANS) The Left parties and Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) lost their election deposits in the Madurantakam and Dharapuram Assembly bypolls, with their candidates finishing far behind the three leading parties.
Altogether, 43 contestants forfeited their deposits across the two constituencies despite a five-cornered contest involving the principal political parties.
In Madurantakam, 24 of the 27 candidates lost their deposits, including the nominees of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and NTK.
In Dharapuram, 19 of the 22 contestants suffered the same fate, among them the Communist Party of India (CPI) and NTK candidates.
NTK candidate Janakiraman polled 2,709 votes in Madurantakam, while CPI(M) nominee Sugandhi received 1,986.
Their combined tally of 4,695 votes reflected the limited support secured by the two parties in a constituency where voting was overwhelmingly concentrated around the TVK, DMK and AIADMK candidates.
The gap was substantial: TVK candidate Maragatham Kumaravel received 74,048 votes, DMK nominee Paranthaman secured 54,008 and AIADMK candidate Kanitha Sampath polled 47,450.
These were the only three candidates to retain their deposits in Madurantakam.
Another 652 voters opted for None of the Above (NOTA).
Madurantakam recorded 1,84,640 votes against an electorate of 2,13,815.
Although the constituency attracted 27 contestants, the figures showed that most candidates struggled to make an electoral impact.
The NTK and CPI(M) nominees together received considerably fewer votes than any of the three principal party candidates.
In Dharapuram, NTK candidate Karthika secured 5,268 votes, while CPI nominee Lakshmanan received 1,157.
Their combined tally stood at 6,425. Both lost their deposits along with 17 other contestants.
NOTA accounted for 677 votes, according to the constituency’s voting figures.
TVK candidate Sathyabama polled 66,841 votes in Dharapuram, followed by the DMK’s Sukanya with 57,370 and the AIADMK’s Bhanumathi with 45,280.
Only these three candidates retained their deposits. The constituency recorded 1,79,214 votes out of a total electorate of 2,23,306, with 22 candidates in the fray.
The NTK secured more votes in Dharapuram than in Madurantakam, but its candidate remained well behind the third-placed AIADMK nominee.
Both Left candidates polled fewer than 2,000 votes. The deposit losses underscored the difficulty faced by the NTK and Left parties in widening their electoral presence in the two constituencies, where the three leading parties together accounted for 1,75,506 votes in Madurantakam and 1,69,491 in Dharapuram, respectively.
–IANS
aal/rad