Upsetting pre-poll calculations, independent candidate Dinakaran (who along with Sasikala was expelled from the AIADMK a couple of months back) appears to be on course to win the coveted R.K. Nagar Assembly constituency in Chennai.

Dinakaran, nephew of Sasikala (former aide of former chief-minister J. Jayalalithaa) had contested the polls as an independent candidate who was allotted the ‘pressure cooker’ symbol in contrast to the ‘hat’ symbol which he was allotted during the abandoned by-polls in R.K. Nagar in April.

For the ruling AIADMK, defeat in R.K. Nagar (imminent though results haven’t yet been announced) may not mean much in terms of numbers but might give Dinakaran an upper hand among the ruling party’s (fragile) flock of MLAs. For the opposition DMK, though, it would come as a ‘shocker’ as it would be blamed of not being able to take on a ‘weak’ AIADMK (sans Jayalalithaa) and an independent candidate.

As at 03:20 p.m., Dinakaran had polled 60,385 votes to AIADMK’s Madhusudanan, his nearest rival, who had got 30,745 votes. DMK was a poor third with Marudhu Ganesh getting only 15,977 votes.  With 839 votes, BJP’s Karu Nagarajan polled almost half of what ‘NOTA’ had got!

It remains to be seen how the defeat would cost AIADMK which has failed miserably to retain the constituency held till last December by its ‘Puratchithalaivi’ and ‘permanent general secretary’ Amma a.k.a. Jayalalithaa!