In a nail biting finish, DMK's D M Kathir Anand on Friday won the Vellore Lok Sabha segment defeating his nearest rival, AIADMK's ally A C Shanmugam, by a narrow margin of 8,141 votes.
The result came as a setback to the AIADMK which was hoping to retain the seat and prove a point after it faced a near rout in the April Lok Sabha elections with the DMK-led alliance winning 37 of the 38 constituencies then.
The DMK candidate, son of party Treasurer Duraimurugan, bagged 4,85,340 votes and garnered a 47.3 per cent vote share as it wrested the Vellore seat from its arch rival AIADMK which had won it in 2014.
Shanmugam of Puthiya Needhi Katchi, who contested on the AIADMK's Two-Leaves symbol, polled 4,77,199 votes and got 46.51 per cent share, the Election Commission announced.
Thanking the voters, DMK chief M K Stalin said the victory was "exceptional and unparallelled."
Also, the win has cemented DMK's position as the third biggest party in the Lok Sabha, he said adding his party's victory could have been "delayed," but cannot be "prevented."
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