Vellore Lok Sabha bypoll: DMK's Kathir Anand wins by 8,141 votes

New Delhi, Aug 09: In a neck-and-neck contest, DMK's Kathir Anand cemented the party's victory in Vellore today, after winning the election in the constituency by a margin of 8,141 votes.

Kathir Anand polled 4.85 lakh votes against New Justice Party chief and AIADMK alliance candidate A C Shanmugham who got 4.77 lakh votes.

With this win, the DMK has bagged 38 of 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, while one is with the AIADMK.

The poll to the Vellore Lok Sabha seat, originally scheduled to be held in April alongside some other seats in Tamil Nadu, was cancelled following tax raids here and cash seizures. Fresh polling was held on August 5.

The constituency has 14.32 lakh voters spread in six Assembly segments and 71.51 per cent votes were polled.

The EVMs, the control units and Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) devices were moved to Ranipet engineering college premises after the polls. The votes are being counted in a tight security environment which includes deployment of 70 CCTV cameras on the college premises, 35 km from here.

The outcome of the result is crucial for the ruling AIADMK which strained every nerve in the campaign to the polls to retrieve political ground it lost to the DMK in Lok Sabha polls held in April.

The AIADMK campaign led by Chief Minister K Palaniswami accused the DMK of winning 38 Lok Sabha seats by hoodwinking people through assurances that can never be implemented. Palaniswami had also said that DMK chief M K Stalin deceived people in the same way candies were offered to children.

The DMK, on its part, had accused the ruling AIADMK and its ally the BJP of having tried to prevent its victory in the polls held in April through false allegations linked to Income Tax searches and seizure of cash by authorities.