Chennai, March 1 (IANS) As many as 450 security personnel and 48 surveillance cameras are guarding the strong room that stores the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) of the Erode East by-election held on February 27.The votes will be counted in 15 rounds on March 2.Election commission officials told IANS that a total of 100 officials will be involved in the counting of votes and that the counting of postal votes will commence from 8 a.m.The Chief Electoral officer for the bypoll is the District Collector of Erode M. Krishnanunni, while the Election Observer (General) is Rajkumar Yadav. The returning officer for the election is R. Sivakumar, Secretary, Erode Municipal Corporation.The election to the Erode East Assembly was necessitated following the passing away of the Congress legislator E. Thirumahan Everaa who passed away on January 4 due to a sudden illness.The DMK front has fielded E.V.K.S. Elangovan -- a senior Congress leader, former Union minister and father of the deceased legislator. The seat was won by Thirumahan Everaa by defeating the Tamil Manila Congress (TMC) candidate, M. Yuvaraj by a margin of 8904 votes.The AIADMK has fielded former legislator K.S. Thenarasu but it has to be seen as to how the infighting over party control between Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS) and O. Panneerselvam (OPS) will affect the polls.The DMK front has an advantage as its candidate had won the seat by a margin of 8,904 votes and it has a sympathy factor in its support due to the sudden demise of E. Thirumahan Everaa and the candidate contesting being the father of the dead legislator. Besides, the support offered by Kamal Haasan's political outfit, Makkal Needhi Maiam(MNM) is a major advantage for the DMK front. MNM candidate garnered 10,000 votes in 2021 Assembly polls contesting on its own.
--IANS aal/shb/
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