ERODE/LUCKNOW, Feb 8: The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu extended its winning run in elections on Saturday by emerging victorious in the Erode East bypoll with a massive margin against actor-politician Seeman’s NTK, a victory that should come as a major boost to the M K Stalin-led party ahead of next year’s Assembly elections.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate V C Chandhirakumar trounced Naam Tamilar Katchi’s (NTK) M K Seethalakshmi by a margin of 91,558 votes. In the process, NTK, a Tamil nationalist organisation, forefeited deposit.
Chief Minister and DMK president Stalin said his party registered a huge victory on Periyar’s (rationalist leader E V Ramasamy) soil. Erode is the native district of Ramasamy, a Dravidian stalwart. The win was a recognition of the DMK government’s good governance.AIADMK chief and Leader of Opposition, Edappadi K Palaniswami, described the DMK’s win as “fake,” saying there was “nobody on the ground,” referring to the main opposition party and others keeping away from the contest.
BJP BEATS SP
BJP candidate Chandrabhanu Paswan on Saturday won the Milkipur bypolls by a margin of 61,710 votes, according to the Election Commission website.
While Paswan, 38, polled over 1.46 lakh votes, his nearest rival Samajwadi Party’s Ajit Prasad, 42, garnered 84,687 votes, it said.After 31 rounds of counting, Paswan with 1,46,397 votes registered a win.
With the BJP winning the Milkipur (SC) seat, all five assembly segments of the Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency are in the BJP’s kitty.The other assembly segments are Rudauli, Bikapur and Ayodhya in Ayodhya district and Rudauli assembly segment of Barabanki district.
Milkipur was the only seat the BJP lost in Ayodhya district in the 2022 Assembly polls.Santosh Kumar of the Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) stood a distant third and got 5,459 votes.The Milkipur bypoll was necessitated after local MLA Awadhesh Prasad vacated the seat following his Faizabad win in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.The SP fielded his son Ajit Prasad in the bypoll even as the BJP opted for a party cadre Paswan, both from the Pasi community. (PTI)