The Vellore Lok Sabha constituency went to polls on August 5 after it was cancelled following tax raids and cash seizures in April
Vellore (Tamil Nadu): The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is ahead of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) by a margin of 14,921 votes in the Vellore Lok Sabha constituency as per official data of the Election Commission (EC) on Friday (August 9).
After a close contest in the initial rounds of counting, the DMK has managed to take the lead after the 12th round.
AIADMK's AC Shanmugam (chief of Puthiya Neethi Katchi, an ally of the ruling party) and DMK's DM Kathir Anand are the key contenders of the total 28 candidates in the fray. Now, Anand is leading.
Also read: Counting of votes begins at Ranipet Engineering College
According to the latest reports, the DMK had tallied 3,28,615 votes while the AIADMK got 3,13,694 votes.
The poll to the Vellore Lok Sabha seat, originally scheduled to be held in April along with the other constituencies in Tamil Nadu, was cancelled following tax raids and cash seizures.
Fresh polling was held on August 5. The constituency has 14.32 lakh voters spread in six Assembly segments, and 71.51% votes were polled.
The EVMs, the control units and Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) devices were moved to Ranipet Engineering College premises after the polls.
The votes are being counted in a tight security environment which includes the deployment of 70 CCTV cameras on the college premises, 35 km from Vellore.
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