Bypoll results: Expect first trend around 11 am

Clear trends are expected to emerge around 11 am while the results would be known by 2 pm if the counting goes as planned without disruptions. The counting to be held at Queen Mary’s College will be completed in 19 rounds by about 100 polling officials in 14 tables, Election Commission officials said.

A total of 59 candidates including E Madhusudhanan (AIADMK), Marudhu Ganesh (DMK), TTV Dinakaran (Independent), Karu Nagarajan (BJP) and Kalaikootudhayam (Naam Tamilar Katchi) are in the fray.

In each table, besides the officials counting the votes, an observer would be monitoring the process and a copy of the results in every round would be given to all the booth agents. The counting of votes would be verified in each round before announcing them through loud speakers. The entire process would be videographed.

For Stalin, it is the first election after taking over as working president. Though, the DMK has shown a complacent attitude in campaign, it is banking on the committed vote base and AIADMK split. The DMK has the support of the Congress, the MDMK, the CPI, the CPM, the VCK and Muslim outfits.

Although Chennai is considered DMK’s stronghold, RK Nagar is the lone seat that AIADMK had won in Chennai in the first Assembly elections it faced in 1977. 

Thereafter, the party has won the seat in 1991, 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016 and its ally the Congress won it in 1984. The DMK for its part had been able to win the seat only twice in 1989 and 1996.

Though the DMK had lost seven times, it has shown a consistent vote base of about 33 per cent. The seat fell vacant following the demise of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on December 5 last year.