VC Chandrakumar of the DMK won the Erode East assembly constituency bypoll by a margin of 90,621 votes over his opponent Seethalakshmi of Seeman's Naam Thamilar Katchi (NTK). After the 17th round counting the Election Commission declared that Chandrakumar had secured 1,17,158 votes as against 23,810 votes polled by Seethalakshmi.
The seat which fell vacant after the death of Congress veteran EVKS Elangovan went to polls on February 5. This is the second time the constituency which was retained by the Congress went for bypolls. Elangovan was elected by a margin of 66,223 votes followig the demise of his son Thirumagan Evera.
A total of 46 candidates were in the fray, mostly independents except NTK's Seethalakshmi. The February 5 thus became a two cornered contest between DMK and the Tamil nationalist outfit, which saw a voter turnout of 67.97 per cent, with 1,54,657 people exercising their franchise. The opposition parties including the AIADMK and the BJP and also actor Vijay's fledgling TVK chose to stay out of the election as the state will go for assembly election in 2026.
DMK's performance comes as no surprise as vote transfer was the key in this election. The DMK incidentally concentrated on the transfer of the 47,000 votes polled for the AIADMK-BJP combine in the 2023 bypolls to the same constituency. The DMK claims it as an acknowledgement for the MK Stalin-led government.
On the other side, this byelection was looked at as an opportunity for Seeman and his NTK. His Tamil nationalism rhetoric and his strong opposition to the ideals of Periyar and the Dravidian Movements in the state were viewed as methodologies to woo the anti-DMK voters. However, his rhetoric against Periyar and Tamil nationalism plank has only a miniscule support among the people. Meanwhile, atleast 6,000 votes were polled for NOTA as there was no concrete opposition.
