By-poll victory: Cong takes Erode East as Elangovan wins by huge margin

CHENNAI: The DMK-backed Congress candidate EVKS Elangovan on Thursday won the Erode East by-poll by a huge margin and secured 1,10,556 votes at the end of the 15th round of counting. While Elangovan crossed 1 lakh vote mark, his nearest rival, AIADMK candidate, KS Thennarasu got 43,981 votes. NTK candidate Menaka Navaneethan secured 7,984 votes and DMDK candidate S Anand got 1,115 votes.

Earlier, Elangovan said that the victory is an example to the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “The credit for this victory goes to chief minister MK Stalin. He did 80% of the things that were promised by DMK in the election manifesto. I feel proud to be a part of the Legislative Assembly headed by him,” Elangovan said.

As the victory for Congress candidate was nearing, Chief Minister MK Stalin said that the "victory at Erode East constituency was for the Dravidian model of politics".

With early trends in Erode East by-election showing a tilt towards the Congress, its workers, and supporters burst into celebrations in Chennai.

Earlier in the day, Tamil Nadu Congress Chief KS Alagiri predicted that Elangovan will win the election by a huge margin.