CHENNAI: Hailing their consecutive wins as a historic victory, newly minted TVK MLAs Maragatham Kumaravel and P Sathyabama officially assumed office on Monday, dismissing the opposition’s heavy smear campaign as a failed attempt to sway voters.Reflecting on the hard-fought electoral battles, Madurantakam MLA Kumaravel lashed out at the opposition for resorting to vicious personal attacks and misogynistic abuse during the intense 20-day campaign.“During the 20 days, they hurled countless problems, fake propaganda, and stooped to personal attacks without sparing the fact that I am a woman,” Kumaravel charged, alleging that both the DMK and AIADMK colluded to cause her mental distress. While asserting that TVK won the seat without distributing cash to voters, she claimed that “postal votes were entirely bought out by the opposition.”Echoing similar sentiments, Dharapuram MLA Sathyabama credited public trust in the leadership for what she described as a historic triumph won on a battlefield.“The public is celebrating, realizing that this administration has brought a genuine dawn of progress,”Sathyabama said, promising to permanently resolve Dharapuram’s chronic water scarcity. Kumaravel, securing a legislative return for her third term, similarly vowed to prioritize local development in Madurantakam.Moving past the contentious campaign trail, the two legislators took their oaths of office administered by Speaker J C D Prabhakar in his chamber at the Secretariat. Ministers N Anand, K A Sengottaiyan, and Adhav Arjuna were present on the occasion.Kumaravel secured her seat with a commanding margin of 20,040 votes, while Sathyabama clinched a 9,471-vote victory in the Oct 6 bypolls.
