It's official that Congress candidate EVKS Elangovan has secured a stupendous victory in the recently-held Erode East bypoll. What made the victory historical was the margin that he has bagged and with the victory, he is all set to enter the state assembly as the Erode East MLA for the first time in three decades. The ruling DMK and its alliance Congress party have been celebrating the triumph across the state. 

By securing over 1 lakh votes, Elangovan has scripted a new milestone in the history of the Erode East constituency, which was formed in 2008. He is the only candidate so far in the constituency to breach 1 lakh votes in the poll and he has also become the only candidate so far in Erode East to win the poll in a huge margin. 

By the time of writing this content, Elangovan has secured 1,10,556 votes while his immediate contender, ADMK's Thennarasu has got 43,981 votes and came second in the race with the only relief of retaining the deposit amount. With the current tally, the margin of victory stands at 66,575 votes. Notably, by being conferred with a humongous margin, Elangovan has surpassed the margin of victory kept his son Thirumahan Everaa in the Erode East constituency. 

Everaa was elected to the assembly from Erode East in the 2021 assembly polls with a margin of 8,904 votes. Everaa's untimely demise on January 4 this year at the age of 46 due to cardiac arrest had necessitated this bypoll and the Congress party has fielded his father and former Union Minister Elangovan as its candidate. The polling was held on Monday -February 27 with over 70 candidates on the ballot. The votes were counted on Thursday - March 2. 

Since the beginning of the counting, Elangovan was leading the race at every round. At the end of final round, it has been declared that Elangovan has won the bypoll. The above mentioned numbers were final as the counting has been concluded. As Elangovan triumphed the race with the historical margin of 66,575 votes, he has been surfaced with commendations from across and beyond the borders and the Congress party has retained its numbers in the Tamil Nadu assembly.

While the ADMK has retained the deposit amount by breaching the 28,000-mark, the other two popular contenders, Seeman's Naam Tamilar Katchi and Vijayakanth's DMDK had failed to retain the deposit as they have got votes less than the expected mandate. While Naam Tamilar's Menaka has got 10,804 votes, DMDK's Anand has bagged 1,301 votes. Notably, Naam Tamilar Katchi's base has plunged as it has secured nearly 1,000 votes less than what it has got in the 2021 assembly polls. 

Speaking about Elangovan's victory, MK Stalin claimed that the victory at the Erode East constituency was for the Dravidian model of politics and that it is a prelude to the victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. MK Stalin said, "On the campaign trail, I had asked the people not to view this as just a bypoll, but as an evaluation of the Dravidian Model of governance. So the people have evaluated us and given us an immense victory".

"The results are a prelude to the victory we will get in the Lok Sabha elections coming soon", Stalin added. Congratulating Elangovan, Stalin said that the voters have given a historic mandate and they also have given a befitting lesson to ADMK's Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS). Speaking about the historic mandate, Elangovan said, "The credit for the victory goes to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin. The DMK government has fulfilled its election promises and this victory is a recognition of that. The results show people's love for secular coalition."