The scorching campaigns of the political parties for the Erode East bypoll have come to an end on Saturday evening. As the campaign got over with the final touch-ups from Chief Minister MK Stalin and opposition leader ADMK's Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS), the next stop is the polling, which will be held on Monday - February 27. 

The results for the Erode East bypoll will be announced on March 2 and though there are dozens of candidates on the ballot, the clash is perhaps directly between the ruling DMK and the opposition ADMK. On Saturday, the leaders of both the parties gave a final push to their candidates at the constituency. MK Stalin campaigned for the DMK-backing Congress candidate EVKS Elangovan and EPS has wooed voters to support ADMK's candidate Thennarasu. 

The month-long campaign for the bypoll came to an end at 6 pm on Saturday and with the advisory from the Election Commission officials, the people who came to the Erode East constituency for the election work are now packing up to leave the constituency amid a political torridity. The bypoll has been considered as a four-front race - with DMK and ADMK crossing swords while Seeman's Naam Tamilar Katchi and Vijayakanth's DMDK are vying to turn the tide. 

The bypoll was necessitated after the demise of Congress MLA Thirumahan Everaa, who died on January 4 at the age of 46 due to cardiac arrest. As the Congress party is in the DMK allliance, the latter had awarded the bypoll seat to the Congress to contest again and the national party has fielded former Union Minister EVKS Elangovan, who is the father of Thirumahan Everaa, as its candidate. 

On Saturday, both MK Stalin and EPS had done a last-minute round off across the constituency. Hailing Erode as the foundation of the DMK, Stalin went on to press that his government has been working to fulfill the poll promises that were made by the party when it ran for power in the 2021 assembly polls. Accompanied by the candidate EVKS Elangovan by his side and by the colony of cadres, MK Stalin held a campaign at Erode East by stopping over and speaking to the voters in multiple spots.

Asserting that his government's ultimate aim is to ban NEET in Tamil Nadu, Stalin had listed out the schemes and governance of his administration as he wooed the voters. As one of the poll promises of DMK - providing Rs 1000 financial aid per month for women, that has been dormant for a long while, Stalin has assured the voters that his government would formally announce in the upcoming budget session in March about when the scheme will be implemented. 

MK Stalin has also sought the support from the voters for Elangovan in a fashion that would made the opposition ADMK candidate lose his deposit. The Chief Minister has also held a walk show where he met the voters and interacted with them. Countering MK Stalin and his assertion for fulfilling the poll promises, EPS had slammed the ruling DMK government for not implementing the promises and he went on to rack several accusations against MK Stalin's administration. 

It is pertinent to note that Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam has extended its support to the Congress candidate, with the actor had done campaigning for EVKS Elangovan recently. Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo on Friday said that the Erode East bypoll will be held on February 27 from 7 am to 6 pm with the stringent implementation of the model code of conduct. He also said that regulation under Secton 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, would come into operation from 6 pm on February 25 till the end of the poll.