CHENNAI: Newly-elected Congress MLA Tharahai Cuthbert who won the Vilavancode assembly by-election took oath of office in Chennai on Wednesday.

Tharahai, 47, was sworn in as a member of the Vilavancode Legislative Assembly in the presence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Speaker M Appavu, and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee President Selvaperunthagai.

Congress' Tharahai Cuthbert trounced the 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 re-established Vilavancode as a Congress bastion. The BJP's Nanthini polled 50,880 votes. Tamil nationalist party Naam Tamilar Katchi’s candidate R Jemini was relegated to the third position, while U Rani of AIADMK managed to poll just 5,046 votes.