TTV Dhinakaran wins RK Nagar by-elections

Counting of votes for the RK Nagar election began at 8 am at Queen Mary’s College. The results so far indicate that an independent cadidate TTV Dhinakaran, the nephew of the sidelined ex-AIADMK chief VK Sasikala, is leading.

5:07 PM Dhinakaran wins RK Nagar election. AIADMK finishes second and retains security deposit. All the other candidates, 57 of them including the DMK’s Marudhuganesh, have forfeited deposit.

4:50 PM As counting enters final round, Dhinkaran is all set to enter the TN Legislative Assembly as he looks all set to win the RK Nagar seat.

4:30 PM As the 17th round of counting got underway, Dinakaran leads his nearest rival by a margin of 35,685 votes. With about 30,000 to be counted, Mr. Dhinkaran’s victory has been assured.

At the end of 16th round of counting, Dhinakaran has won 76,701. THe AIADMK has won 41,526 and the DMK has won 2,182.

4:15 PM At the end of fifteenth round, TTV Dhinakaran has breached the threshold of seventy thousand votes by polling 72,413 votes. The AIADMK is now a distant second with 38,966. The DMK 20,388. Naam Thamilar has polled 3,535. The BJP, with its 1,185 votes, crosses the symbolic thousand votes mark, but it still trails behind the voters who choose the NOTA option (2,096).

4:05 PM Dhinakaran has won 68,392 votes after the end of the fourteenth round of voting. AIADMK has polled 36,217 votes, the DMK has polled 18,924 votes. Only five more rounds of counting of votes is left.

3:25 PM TTV Dhinakaran doubles his lead over his nearest contestant at the end of the twelfth round of counting. He has 60,284 votes. His rival from the AIADMK, Madhusoodhanan, has 30,745 votes. The DMK is in third place 15,918. Naam Thamilar (2,871 votes) is in the forth place. BJP has polled 837 votes, lower than the number of voters who preferred NOTA (1,537).

3:15 PM The tally at the end of eleventh round of counting shows TTV Dhinakaran consolidating his lead. He now has 54,315. AIADMK's Madhusoodhanan has 27,937 votes. Third placed DMK has 14,481 votes. Naam Thamilar party (2,607) is in the forth position. BJP has 758 votes. NOTA has polled 1,404.

2:45 PM In the tenth round, Dinakaran adds 4,500 votes to his tally. Madhusoodhanan gets 3,595 votes and Marudhuganesh adds 1,584.

2:30 PM Dhinakaran adds 9,962 votes in the ninth round of counting. He now has a total of 44,308 votes. His nearest rival AIADMK’s Madhusoodhanan has 21,972 votes, followed by DMK’s Marudhuganesh with 11,431 votes.

2 PM The tally at the end of seventh round shows that Dhinakaran leads with 34,346 votes. The AIADMK retains the second position with 17,471 votes. DMK's Maruthuganesh has polled 9,206 votes.Naam Thamilar (1,732) is in the forth position. The NOTA option has polled 935 votes and the BJP has 519 votes.

1:00 PM The tally at the end of sixth round shows that Dhinakaran has 29,255 votes. The ruling AIADMK has polled 15,181. The DMK trails with 7,986. Naam Thamilar party has polled 1,509. The BJP (485) slips below the NOTA option (798).

12:55 PM In the sixth round of counting, Dhinakaran leads by 2,988 votes.

12:40 PM The AIADMK seems to have made a comeback. The party's candidate has polled 13,057 votes at the end of the fifth round of counting. Independent candidate TTV Dhinakaran has polled 24,132 votes. The margin of votes between the top two candidates is 11,075. The DMK has 6,606 votes.

12:20 PM Dhinakaran sees a dip in votes polled during the fifth round. However, he continues to lead by a margin of 517 votes in the fifth round. Adding all the five rounds of counting, Dinakaran leads AIADMK 's Madhusoodhanan by 12,357 votes.

12:10 PM The tally at the end of fourth round shows that Dhinakaran has the support of 20,298 voters in the RK Nagar constituency. Veteran politician, E Madhusudhanan, the candidate of the ruling AIADMK trails with 9,672. The DMK's candidate has received 5,032 votes. Naam Thamilar party has polled 962 votes. The BJP is now in fifth place with 318 votes. The NOTA option has received 208 votes.

11:30 AM Dhinakaran leads by 11,816 votes after the end of fourth round of counting.

11:20 AM The tally at the end of third round sees TTV Dhinakaran exted his lead with a total of 15,868 votes. The AIADMK's candidate E Madhusudhanan has polled 7,033 votes. DMK is still at the third place with 3,691 votes.

10:55 AM The tally at the end of second round has seen TTV Dhinakaran incleasing his vote count to 10,421. The AIADMK has 4,521 votes. DMK has received the backing of 2,324 voters. Naam Thamilar is in fourth place with 459 votes. The 'None of the Above' (NOTA) option has polled 208 votes. The national party, BJP has received only 117 votes.

10:30 AM In the second round, Dhinakaran leads with 5,081 votes. But Dhinakaran's supporters object to the data, claiming that the officials were announcing erroneous data.

10:20 AM Third round of counting resumes after the damaged furniture are replaced.

9:55 AM District Electoral Officer D. Karthikeyan has said that police have restored peace in the counting centre. "Nothing alarming. The compilation of second round is going on," he said.

9:30 AM Supporters of AIADMK and Dhinakaran clash inside counting hall leading to violence. Police forces step in. Counting has paused. Television channels show police forcibly removing cadres of both sides are counting agents were found damaging furniture. Counting personnel were prevented from counting by some party agents believed to be from AIADMK. Police forcefully removed them. This included a woman agent as well.

9:20 AM Independent candidate T T V Dhinakaran was leading over his AIADMK and DMK rivals at the end of the first round of counting for the RK Nagar bypoll. Dhinakaran, the sidelined AIADMK leader, polled 5,339 votes as against AIADMK’s E Madhusudhanan (2,738). N Maruthuganesh of DMK polled 1,181 votes.

8:00 AM Counting of votes for the RK Nagar bypoll, the outcome of which can have a bearing on political equations in Tamil Nadu, began here today. The seat was represented by late chief minister J Jayalalithaa. The counting began by 8 am at Queen Mary’s College here and the process is expected to be completed in 19 rounds.

As many as 200 officials drawn from both Central and State government services have been deputed for the exercise. Tight security is in place with state and Central Armed Police Forces personnel providing multi-layered security.

The outcome of the result is crucial for all key contenders—the ruling AIADMK, rival leader TTV Dhinakaran and the main opposition DMK.

Unfazed by some exit polls indicating an edge for rival AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran, both AIADMK and DMK have expressed confidence that they would win the seat.

For the ruling regime helmed by Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam, it will be seen as an acid test of whether voters prefer them after the demise of their formidable leader late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. For Dhinakaran, who claims to represent the welfare legacy of Jayalalithaa, the bypoll success is a veritable springboard for his future political aspirations.

Success for an aggressive DMK is critical as it would lend credence to its campaign line that the people were fed up with the incumbent “horse-trading” regime and wanted to bring it to the seat of power for dispensing good governance. The DMK has been bolstered with the support of some more parties, including the Left, MDMK and VCK. A win in this bypoll could help it project itself as a much more redoubtable key opposition party.

Monitoring counting

While there are 18 micro observers drawn from Central government services, each of the 14 counting tables will be monitored by one of them, according to election authorities. The entire counting process is being videographed and arrangements have been made to announce the results after conclusion of counting of each round.

The bypoll held on December 21 had seen a record 77.68 per cent voter turnout. There are 59 candidates in the fray, but the fight is essentially a triangular one, with key contenders being ruling AIADMK’s E Madhusudhanan, main opposition DMK candidate N Maruthu Ganesh and Dhinakaran, contesting as an independent.

The ruling AIADMK got back its ‘Two Leaves’ election symbol back following merger of factions led by Palaniswami and former rebel O Panneerselvam.

The 2015 RK Nagar bypoll in which Jayalalithaa was elected by a huge margin of 1.5 lakh votes for the first time in this segment had witnessed a record 75 per cent turnout. RK Nagar has an electorate of 2,28,234, comprising 1,10,903 men, 1,17,232 women and 99 transgenders.

(With inputs from The Hindu)

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