Congress wrests Madurai West from ADMK

The Congress on Friday increased its tally of seats in the Tamil Nadu assembly from 34 to 35 by wresting Madurai West seat, where its nominee K S K Rajendran trounced the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's Sellur K Raju by 31,115 votes.

The result was also a shot in the arm for Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam patriarch M Karunanidhi's elder son and its pointsman in the southern districts, M K Azhagiri, who spearheaded the campaign for Rajendran.

The candidate of Congress, part of the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance, was leading since the counting began at 0800 hours on Friday.

The by-poll, on June 26, was necessitated due to the death of rebel AIADMK member S V Shanmugham.

In 2006 polls, Shanmugham defeated a Congress nominee by over 3000 votes.

Azhagiri was in the eye of a political storm following the attacks on the office of Dinakaran, owned by Maran brothers, after the Tamil daily published a survey that claimed Azhagiri's younger sibling M K Stalin as a possible political successor to Karunanidhi.

The attack led to Dayanidhi Maran's exit from the Union Cabinet, also in the run-up to the polls. The results also showed the increasing popularity of DMDK, founded by film star Vijaykant, whose T Sivamuthukumaran occupied third position with 21,272 votes.