74.79% voter turnout in Erode East bypoll

ERODE: The byelection for the Erode East assembly constituency recorded a 74.79% turnout of voters on Monday, the highest since the 2011 assembly elections.
Out of 2.27 lakh voters in the constituency, 82,138 men, 88,037 women and 17 transgenders cast their votes in the incident-free polling. But for minor hiccups, voting for the fiercely fought byelection was peaceful.Polling began at a brisk pace at 7am when voters queued up in large numbers in front of the polling stations.
Congress candidate E V K S Elangovan, AIADMK candidate K S Thennarasu, NTK candidate Menaka Navaneethan and DMDK candidate S Anand were among the voters who were early to exercise their franchise.
Elangovan told reporters that he would win with a huge margin and his rivals would suffer 'an unprecedented loss'. "I cannot put a number to the victory margin. But it will be a historic win, thanks to chief minister M K Stalin's good regime and Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra," he said.
Thennarasu too expressed confidence that he would win. "Despite all the electoral rule violations by the DMK, we will win with a margin of 25,000 votes."
DMDK candidate S Anand was stopped when he came to a booth at Karungalpalayam to vote since his dhoti and shawl had the symbol of his party printed on them. He returned after changing his attire to cast his vote.
Returning officer K Sivakumar said that EVMs, VVPATs and control units were sent to strong rooms at IRTT Engineering College in Chithode, the counting centre. "CCTV cameras have been installed inside and outside the strong rooms, which have been sealed after keeping the EVMs," he said. The seals of the strong rooms will be opened in front of the election agents of all the political parties on March 2 for vote counting.