Vellore Lok Sabha By-Election Result 2019: DMK's DM Kathir Anand wins by 8,141 votes; AC Shanmugam of AIADMK comes second with 477,199 votes

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) clinched the Lok Sabha By-Elections in Vellore with the party nominee DM Kathir Anand, son of senior leader Durai Murugan winning by a margin of 8,141 votes, reported News18.  [caption id=“attachment_7138791” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Kathir Anand. News 18[/caption] The counting began on Friday at Ranipet Engineering College in Vellore amid tight security. Seventy CCTV cameras were deployed in the college premises, according to India Today. After the counting was concluded, DMK  won a total of  4,85,340 votes, while AIADMK’s AC Shanmugam came a close second with 477,199 votes, reported The Indian Express. The polls were originally scheduled on 18 April along with other Tamil Nadu constituencies but were cancelled due to the recovery of a huge amount of cash from an alleged associate of a DMK leader, reported The Hindu. The polls were re-conducted on 5 August and a total of 28 candidates contested the elections. However, the main contest boiled down between Shanmugam and Anand. MK Stalin’s DMK and AIADMK were locked in a close electoral competition, but with DMK emerging victorious, the DMK-Congress alliance rose to 38, reported NDTV . Both the parties extensively campaigned in Vellore. Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswam was seen campaigning for Shanmugam. From DMK, party leader MK Stalin and youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin campaigned for Anand. The victory of DMK over its opposition can be attributed to the fact that it ran an anti-BJP campaign in a constituency, which has a sizeable Muslim population, reported  News18. The AIDMK which supported the centre on the triple talaq bill didn’t receive support from the Muslim population in Vellore even after changing its stance in Rajya Sabha before the Vellore by-elections. DMK had won a total of 37 constituencies out of 38 in  Lok Sabha polls conducted April 2019 with AIDMK managing to win only one seat.