Vikravandi Bypoll Results: DMK's Anniyur Siva wins the seat with a big margin

DMK's Anniyur Siva on Saturday won the by-election for the Vikravandi assembly seat by a significant margin of 67,757 votes.

After 21 rounds of vote counting, the final results showed that Siva received 1,24,053 votes, while his closest competitor, C. Anbumani of the PMK and NDA candidate, managed to get only 56,296 votes.

Out of 2,37,031 registered voters in the constituency, 1,96,269 cast their ballots.

Siva took an early lead, garnering 5,564 votes in the first round of counting, compared to Anbumani's 2,894. The DMK candidate maintained his lead throughout the subsequent rounds, with the margin fluctuating but never falling behind.

By the end of the 5th round, Siva had received 31,151 votes, while Anbumani had 11,483. After the 9th round, Siva was in a strong position with 57,483 votes, while Anbumani had only managed 24,130 votes

The lead increased in the subsequent rounds, and by the end of the 18th round, the DMK candidate had received 113,671 votes, while Mr. Anbumani had 50,454 votes. After the 21st round, Mr. Siva had secured a total of 124,053 votes, with 859 voters choosing NOTA.

In Vikravandi, the contest was unmistakably a direct battle between the DMK and the PMK, with the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) participating, while the AIADMK and DMDK chose to boycott the elections.

Out of 29 candidates, 27, including Abinaya Ponnivalavan of Naam Tamilar Katchi, lost their deposits. The initial results were announced at 9:15 a.m., and the final outcome was confirmed at 3:06 p.m., declaring Siva as the winner.

Counting of postal ballots started at 8 a.m., while the votes from electronic voting machines began at 8:30 a.m. This process took place under the supervision of District Election Officer and Collector C. Palani, General Observer Amit Singh Bansal, and Returning Officer M. Chandrasekhar.

Votes were tallied over 21 rounds across 14 tables by more than 100 counting officials.