Congress likely to win big in the by-election

Congress candidate EVKS Elangovan is leading in the Erode East by-poll with a margin of 15,197 votes by the end of second round voting counting. If the trend goes undisturbed, the Congress would have a big win at the constituency.

A few days after the by-election to elect MLA for the constituency took place, election officials began counting the votes at Government engineering college in the city at 7 am on Thursday. In the first round of counting, Elangovan had secured 8,429 votes and AIADMK candidate KS Thennarasu secured about 2,873 votes. By the end of the second round of counting, Elangovan’s votes had increased to 23,321, while Thennarasu bagged 8,124 votes, NTK’s Menaka obtained 1,498 votes and DMDK’s S Anand got only 185 votes.

By the end of the second round, Elangovan was leading the battle with a margin of 15,197 votes. As per the last available information, Elangovan has got 53,747 votes and Thennarasu has got 20,201 votes, and the winning margin of Elangovan is 33,612. As 77 candidates contested in the election, officials had formed 16 tables to count all their votes in each round.

EVKS Elangovan is leading

The votes would be counted in 15 rounds and the result is expected to be announced only later in the date. Following the demise of the Congress MLA Thirumagan Eevera, election commission scheduled by-poll at the constituency on February 27. On the day of election, as many as 238 polling booths were established. As many as 1,430 EVMs, 310 VVPATs and 286 control units were used in the election. Out of 2.27 lakh voters, only 74.79% i.e., 1.70 lakh voters including 82,138 men, 88,037 women and 17 transgender casted their votes.

The sealed EVMs were locked in strong rooms at the Government engineering college in front of political representatives. As 77 candidates contested in the election, five EVMs were used at the polling stations which in turn helped in speeding up the voting process.  As there are five machines, the officials have segregated the devices into two and are voting at different places to quicken the process.