Chennai: Counting began in the Vellore parliamentary constituency this morning with the two major contestants – Kathir Anand of the DMK and A C Shanmugam contesting in the AIADMK alliance – riding almost neck and neck.
But Shanmugam has a marginal lead, garnering 1,38,256 votes, which is about 10,000 votes more than his nearest rival, Kathir Anand.
The election, held 5 August, was supposed to have been held with the 38 other constituencies during the general election 18 April. But income-tax raids at premises owned by Kathir Anand, which brought to light huge amounts of cash allegedly meant for bribing voters, made the Election Commission rescind the elections.