The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu has registered thumping victory in the Erode East bypoll, with the party nominee extending his lead against his nearest NTK rival to over 80,000 votes.
The votes polled in the February 5 bypoll was taken up for counting on Saturday, and the DMK nominee VC Chandhirakumar was leading right from the word go.
At the end of eight rounds of counting, the DMK candidate, an ex-MLA, was ahead of his Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) rival MK Seethalakshmi by a strong margin of 44,005 votes, the Election Commission said.
He got 56,046 votes while Seethalakshmi of the NTK, helmed by actor-politician Seeman, was trailing way behind at 12,041 votes. With another nine rounds of counting to go, the DMK looked set to win the bypoll, necessitated by the death of Congress MLA EVKS Elangovan last year.
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The Congress is part of the DMK-led bloc in the state and the seat was won by the national party's E Thirumahan Everaa in 2021 elections. Following his death in January, 2023, his father Elangovan won the bypoll held in March that year.
The DMK-led alliance has been winning elections in the state since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, with the ruling party president and Chief Minister M K Stalin leading it to power in 2021, after a 10 year stint in the opposition.
The election was held in the background of a bitter war of words between the DMK and NTK over the latter's chief Seeman's vehement criticism of EV Ramasamy 'Periyar.' The rationalist leader is a highly respected figure in Tamil Nadu and founded the Dravidar Kazhagam, the ideological fountainhead of the DMK.
Incidentally, Erode is the native district of Ramasamy.
Assembly elections to 234 seats are slated in Tamil Nadu next year.
Earlier in the day, the counting of polled votes began at 8 am at a government college in Chithode in this district.
Postal ballots were taken up for counting first.
The polling on Wednesday witnessed a voter turnout of 67.97 per cent.
Of the 46 candidates, including 44 independents in the fray, the contest was confined between Chandhirakumar and the Tamil nationalist party NTK's Seethalakshmi.
Opposition parties, including the main opposition AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), had boycotted the bypoll.
The independents in fray put up a poor show, with some of them getting votes in double digits.
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