Erode (Tamil Nadu) :A voter turnout of 44.58 percent voter turnout was registered till 1 pm in the Erode East bypoll, which got underway amid tight security at 7 a.m on Monday.
Congress leader and DMK front candidate EVKS Elangovan cast his vote and exuded confidence in his front winning with a huge margin. This result, he said, will have a major bearing on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and added that the DMK-led front will win both the elections. The by-election to the Erode East Assembly constituency commenced with no untoward incident being reported during the initial hours.
There are 77 candidates in fray for the polls and a mock poll was conducted at 5.30 a.m for the agents of the candidates. The polling will continue till 6 p.m. As many as 238 polling centres have been set up in 52 places.A total of 1206 officers, 286 presiding officers, 858 polling officers and 62 additional officers are deployed for the smooth conduct of the elections. There are 1,430 electronic voting machines and 310 VVPAT machines used for the polling.