Congress leading in Puducherry

The ruling Congress has taken an impressive lead of over 70,000 votes in the lone Lok Sabha constituency in the Union Territory. Congress candidate V Vaithilingam has secured 1,74, 718 votes while his nearest rival Narayanasamy Kesavan of AINRC has polled 90,814 votes, according to the latest information made available by the Election Commission. Congress is part of the DMK led alliance while AINRC is an ally of the BJP.

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Former Speaker and senior Congress leader V Vaithilingam is locking horns with the AINRC candidate and doctor-turned-politician K Narayanasamy in the LS poll.

All the 18 aspirants are fresh faces.

Similarly, all the eight contestants in the Assembly bypoll who are testing their political fortunes are also greenhorns in the poll battle here.

The main contestants are P Nedunchezian (AINRC) and K Venkatesan of the DMK which is an ally of the ruling Congress.

The bypoll became necessary following disqualification of the sitting AINRC legislator Ashok Anand after he was convicted by a local CBI court in a disproportionate assets case in October last year.

The AINRC is seeking to retain both the parliamentary seat and Thattanchavady Assembly segment.