By 2.12pm on Friday, D.M. Kathir Anand of the DMK was leading by 8,460 votes over A.C. Shanmugam of the AIADMK as counting progressed in the Lok Sabha election for Vellore in Tamil Nadu. The counting has seen a keen contest with fortunes of the DMK and AIADMK candidates fluctuating.
The election for the Vellore constituency was cancelled by the Election Commission on April 16 after officials allegedly found a large amount of cash from Anand's office. Voting for the Vellore Lok Sabha seat was held on August 5.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, B. Senguttuvan of the AIADMK had won from Vellore by nearly 60,000 votes. If the trends hold in Vellore, it would seal the near-clean sweep of the DMK and its allies in the Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu. The DMK and its allies—including the Congress and CPI(M)—had won 37 of the 38 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu.
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The only saving grace for the AIADMK, which had allied with the BJP and PMK, was the victory in Theni of O.P. Ravindranath, son of Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam.
