Chennai, Feb 8 (Reporter) In what turned out to be a one-horse race, ruling DMK candidate V C Chandrakumar has taken a sizeable lead over his rival in the Erode East Assembly constituency bypoll, as the counting of continued on Saturday. As per the latest reports, Mr Chandrakumar was leading by more than 50,000 voters over his only rival Ms Seethalakshmi of Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK). At the half way stage of counting, which began at 0800 hrs amid tight security, Chandrakumar polled 63,984 votes as against 13,945 by the NTK candidate. With the major political parties, including the main Opposition AIADMK, its ally, the DMDK, the BJP-Led NDA and its allies, including the PMK and the nascent Tamilar Vettri Kazhagam of Kollywood actor Vijay, boycotting the polls, the outcome of the bypoll was a foregone conclusion. Having established a big lead, which kept swelling with every round of counting, Chandrakumar was expected to win by a record margin. About 70 per cent of the total 2.27 lakh voters have exercised their democratic right during polling in 237 booths in the constituency, which passed off peacefully on Wednesday. The counting began at 0800 hrs at Sithode Government Engineering College. Counting of postal ballots was taken up first followed by the votes polled in EVMs. The fate of 46 candidates were already sealed in the EVMs in the bypoll, the second in this constituency in two years. Though there are 46 candidates in the fray despite major political parties staying away from the contest, the main fight was between ruling DMK's V C Chandrakumar and M K Seethalakshi of the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) of actor-director Seeman. The bypoll, the second in two years, was necessitated following the death of Senior Congress Leader and sitting MLA EVKS Elangovan in December last year. This is the third election to this seat since 2021 in which Mr Elangovan's son Thiru Mahan E.Ve.Ra was elected to the Assembly for the first time. However, his untimely death resulted in bypoll held on February 28, 2023 and it was won by Mr Elangovan, who is also a former Union Minister and former TNCC President, by highest ever margin of over 66,000 votes and entered the State Assembly after a gap of 39 years. However, Mr Elangovan's unfortunate death in December 2024, resulted in yet another bypoll to the seat. DMK Assistant Propaganda Secretary V C Chandrakumar, who had joined the party in 2016 after quitting the actor-politician Vijayakanth-led DMDK, and NTK candidate, Ms Seethalakshmi, also the party's Women's Wing Coordinator, were the main candidates, while the rest were Independents...////...