)
The ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has won the Yercaud by-election. AIADMK's candidate P Saroja defeated Dravida Munetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) candidate V Maran by 78,116 seats.
The AIADMK candidate bagged 1,42,771 votes as compared to Maran's 64,655 seats.
On Sunday, counting of votes began amidst tight security at 8 a.m. at the CSI Polytechnic College on the Yercaud Main Road, Salem. All the 290 Electronic Voting Machines were kept in a strong room in the centre and brought to the counting.
Counting was monitored using video cameras in all the tables it was conducted in a total of 21 rounds. Reports stated, there was some tension in the counting centre as the DMK agents sought table-wise statistics on the number of votes secured by the candidates for each round — from the first round.
The counting was conducted in the presence of General Observer for the by poll Ravi Prakash Arora and Returning Officer T. Sabapathy.
