Erode East bypoll: Congress’s EVKS Elangovan leads by a comfortable margin

The Congress is part of the ruling DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance. Sensing victory, Congress cadres launched into celebrations in several areas. At DMK headquarters Anna Arivalayam in Chennai, sweets were distributed to celebrate the comfortable lead.

The counting of votes began on Thursday at around 8 am. Counting started with postal ballot votes and District Collector H Krishnanunni, returning officer K Sivakumar and other officials reached the counting centre early to oversee proceedings. The strongroom where the EVMs were kept had five-tier security.

As many as 77 candidates contested the bypoll and the voter turnout was 74.79 per cent in a constituency with 2.27 lakh eligible voters.

Since the beginning of the counting, early trends suggested that Elangovan was leading by a big margin, pushing the AIADMK candidate to a distant second.

Initially, there was chaos at the counting centre as officials refused media personnel entry into the counting room. Media personnel also claimed that there was a delay in providing official numbers.

Speaking to reporters, Collector Krishnanunni said each table counting the votes was monitored by a micro-observer and other officials and there is no question about transparency. He said that proper procedure is being followed to ensure there are no issues or violations.

Earlier in the day, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president KS Alagiri said they were confident of a win. “The Tamil Nadu government has fulfilled almost 80 per cent of its poll promises within two years. People’s basic requirements have been fulfilled. Our alliance is based on ideology. AIADMK-led alliance is in unrest, they cannot even regulate their own party. People will not like a party that lacks confidence hence we are sure that our alliance will win the polls,” he said.

Alagiri also backed Chief Minister M K Stalin’s statement that a third front without Congress will not yield any success.