MADURAI: Congress retained the Vilavancode Assembly constituency in Kanniyakumari district defeating the BJP, as per the results of the by-election announced by the Election Commission on Tuesday.

Party candidate Tharahai Cuthbert trounced BJP’s VS Nanthini by a margin of 40,174 votes in the bypoll necessitated by the resignation of former Congress legislator S Vijayadharani, who joined the BJP days before the Lok Sabha election was announced.

Cuthbert garnered 91,054 votes after 19 rounds of counting and reestablished Vilavancode as a Congress bastion. BJP’s Nanthini polled 50,880 votes.

Tamil nationalist party Naam Tamilar Katchi’s candidate R Jemini was relegated to the third position and U Rani of AIADMK managed to poll just 5,046 votes.