ERODE: The ruling DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) on Thursday retained the Erode East seat with an emphatic win against the Edappadi K Palaniswami-led AIADMK alliance, prompting Chief Minister M K Stalin to call the bypoll victory as an endorsement of the people for his two-year-old government’s “Dravidian model” of governance.
Setting a record, SPA candidate EVKS Elangovan of the Congress romped home by polling 1,09,906 votes and trounced AIADMK’s K S Thennarasu, who polled 43,819 votes, by more than 66,000 votes. Naam Tamilar Katchi’s Menaka Navaneethan (10,827 votes) and DMDK’s Anand (1,432) forfeited their deposits. A total of 77 candidates were in the fray.
Much prestige was invested by both the DMK and archrival AIADMK in the fiercely contested electoral battle as this was the first bypoll for the DMK after it came to power in 2021, and was considered a bellwether for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. With the “historic and grand win” the ground was being prepared for an even bigger victory of the SPA in 2024, Stalin told reporters in Chennai.
“During the campaign, I repeatedly sought people’s support for the Dravidian model of governance. People have given a verdict saying it should be done with more vigour,” he said. Reacting to the poll debacle, Palaniswami said the ruling dispensation has won the election by misusing authority and with the help of money power and violence.
Elangovan becomes the first candidate to garner over 1L votes in the constituency
Elangov, a former TNCC president and ex-union minister, became the first candidate to cross the one-lakh vote mark in the constituency since its creation in 2010. EVKS Elangovan was leading right from the start when counting started at 8 am at the centre at Government Engineering College in Chithode by polling 250 of 398 votes cast through postal ballots.
AIADMK candidate KS Thennarasu got 104 votes. As Elangovan’s vote margin went up with each round of counting, AIA DMK candidate KS Thennarasu left the counting centre around noon. “All the votes were counted by 6 pm but there was a minor delay in releasing the full result,” officials said. DMK, Congress and alliance parties celebrated the massive victory by distributing sweets at various places across the state. Local Minister S Muthusamy met the voters in Erode on Thursday evening along with his ministerial colleague Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi and thanked them.
Speaking to reporters in Erode, EVKS Elangovan said, “After Jayalalitha’s demise, everyone had doubts about the existence of a party called AIADMK. It is confirmed by our victory that there is no AIADMK. This victory is a prelude to the parliamentary election. DMK alliance will win all 40 constituencies including Puducherry in the 2024 LS polls.”