ERODE: VC Chandhirakumar of the DMK won the Erode East assembly byelection by a margin of 90,629 votes over his nearest rival M K Seethalakshmi of the Naam Tamilar Katchi.
After the 17th round of counting of votes on Saturday evening, district election officer Rajagopal Sunkara declared that Chandhirakumar had received 114,439 votes while Seethalakshmi had got 23,810 votes.

Seethalakshmi lost her deposit.
The byelection was necessitated by the death of Congress MLA EVKS Elangovan on Dec 14.
A total of 46 candidates were in the fray. Polling was held on Feb 5.