STUNNING WIN: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa savours her party's emphatic success in two key Assembly byelections by distributing sweets to mediapersons in Chennai on Monday. — Photo: S. R. Raghunathan

CHENNAI: In a stunning reversal of fortunes, the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam won the Gummidipoondi and Kancheepuram byelections by margins of 27,162 votes and 17,648 votes.

The results showed a dramatic swing away from the Democratic Progressive Alliance, which swept the 14th Lok Sabha elections in the State last year. In relation to the Lok Sabha election, the swing away from the DPA was 21.20 percentage points in Gummidipoondi and 12.92 percentage points in Kancheepuram. The AIADMK gained more than the DMK lost with the party recording an upward swing of 22.42 percentage points in Gummidipoondi and 14.47 percentage points in Kancheepuram.

In Gummidipoondi, which witnessed a voter turnout of 76.05 per cent, the AIADMK candidate, K.S. Vijayakumar, secured 83,716 of the total 1,47,015 votes polled in the May 14 election. The DMK candidate, P. Venkatachalapathy, managed only 56,554 votes.

In Kancheepuram, the AIADMK candidate, Mythili Thirunavukkarasu, polled 87,274 of the total 1,64,473 votes, defeating the DMK nominee M. Kumar who received 69,626 votes. All the other candidates in the two constituencies lost their deposit. The Dalit Panthers, who contested on the Janata Dal (United) symbol, got 2,926 votes in Gummidipoondi and 1,946 in Kancheepuram.

The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, which made the arrest of the Kanchi Sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, its sole campaign issue, secured 409 votes in Kancheepuram.

In both constituencies, the AIADMK polled a clear majority of the votes: 56.94 per cent in Gummidipoondi and 53.06 percent in Kancheepuram.

The Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary, Jayalalithaa, described the victory as "unparalleled" in the history of Tamil Nadu.

"We did not bother about other parties and allied with the people," she said. "Is the seven party alliance bigger or the alliance of the people bigger?" she asked and proceeded to answer her own question: ``The alliance of the people is bigger. It is the alliance of the people that won the elections."

The results were a vindication of the AIADMK Government's policies of the past four years. The Opposition parties had forgotten the people and were taught a fitting lesson, she said.

The Opposition parties, however, described the AIADMK's victory as a "triumph of money power over democracy."

Misuse of official machinery: Karunanidhi

The DMK president, M. Karunanidhi, said that everyone knew that the byelection victories were achieved through distribution of cash, contravention of the model code of conduct, and misuse of the official machinery.

Ms. Jayalalithaa distributed sweets at her Poes Garden residence while partymen celebrated with fireworks at the party headquarters and on the roadsides.

The counting of votes began at 8 a.m. on Monday.

The AIADMK established a lead in Gummidipoondi from the very first round; the DMK shortened the lead in the second round; but thereafter the AIADMK widened the gap.

In Kancheepuram, the DMK led in the initial rounds, but the AIADMK quickly built up a winning lead as the counting progressed.

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