Chennai: Ruling AIADMK established a comfortable lead over its closest rival DMDK in the byelection to Pudukkottai Assembly constituency today.
At the end of the fourth round of counting of votes polled in the June 12 bypoll, AIADMK`s Karthik Thondaiman has secured 17,871 votes against Jahir Husssain`s 6,249, a lead of 11,622 votes, officials said.
The bypoll witnessed a virtual straight contest between AIADMK and Vijaykant-led DMDK. DMK and Vaiko`s MDMK did not contest the byelection. The bypoll was necessitated by the death of CPI MLA SP Muthukumaran in a road accident on April 1.