MADURAI: Congress MLA S Palani Nadar defeated his rival AIADMK candidate S Selva Mohandass Pandian by a slender margin of 373 votes in the recounting of postal votes. The result was officially declared by Tenkasi RDO Lavanya on Thursday night.

The recounting of 2,971 postal votes was done as per Madras High Court order as the AIADMK candidate challenged the election results of the 2021 Assembly polls citing discrepancies. Out of the total postal votes Palani Nadar secured 1,642, AIADMK candidate got 704 and 316 votes were rejected. The Tenkasi Revenue Divisional Office, where the counting was done, was under a tight security blanket. Even though the election authorities commenced the counting process at 11 am, it had to be stopped twice owing to objections raised by AIADMK candidate Selva Mohandass Pandian.

The counting was delayed as he raised doubts over the covers of postal ballots.

The counting resumed and Palani Nadar was declared as winner at the end. Earlier, Palani Nadar was declared victorious in 2021 with a total of 89,315 votes including 1,609 postal votes to his credit, defeating his nearest rival Selva Mohandass Pandian, who bagged 88,945 votes including 674 postal votes. At the end of it, the recount didn’t alter the poll verdict.