Chennai, July 9 (Reporter) The stage is set for polling in the high stakes Assembly bye-election to the Vikaravandi seat in Tamil Nadu tomorrow. It will be a high stakes battle between the ruling DMK and the PMK, though the bypoll will witness a three-cornered contest, with NTK being the other party in fray. Polling would be held from 7.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m on Wednesday. The Election Commission has made all arrangements to ensure a free and fair polling by deploying adequate police personnel and also central para-military forces as part of security machinery. Polling will be held in 276 booths of which 44 were identified as vulnerable and additional security would be deployed in these booths. The Election Commission has made arrangements for live webcasting of the poll process and the more than 1,000 EVMs would be used in the bypoll, which would be taken from the highly-secured strong room to the polling booths tomorrow morning. The counting will take place on July 13 and the election process will be completed on July 15. District Election Officer and Collector C. Palani also inspected the arrangements made for the counting of votes at the Government Higher Secondary School at Panayapuram near Villupuram and ensured that all basic amenities are put in place. The District Administration has declared dry days for three days from July 8 to 10 and also on July 13 (the counting day) in the entire Villupuram district in view of the bypoll. A total of 29 candidates, including those of the ruling DMK, the PMK and the NTK, are in the fray for the bye-elections. The poll will witness a three cornered contest between the ruling DMK-led Front, the BJP-led alliance and the Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK) as the main Opposition AIADMK and its ally, the DMDK, have decided to boycott the polls alleging it will not be held in a free and fair manner. The main contest would be between Anniyur Siva of DMK and BJP's ally PMK candidate C.Anbumani. NTK's Dr Anuradha is the other main candidate in the fray, while the rest were Independents. The bypoll to the Vikravandi seat in Villuppuram district, a DMK stronghold, was necessitated following the death of sitting DMK MLA N.Pughazhendi, who is also a senior party functionary in the district. He died in April after suffering health issues on his return after attending an election campaign meeting addresses by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M.K.Stalin. This is the third bye-election to be held after the DMK came to power in May 2021 after a gap of ten years, winning the Assembly polls by a resounding margin and Mr Stalin becoming Chief Minister for the first time after his elevation as the DMK Party Chief following the death of his father and DMK Patriarch M.Karunanidhi in August 2018. The previous bypolls were held for Erode Assembly seat due to death of Congress MLA Thirumagan E.Ve.Raa and his father, former Union Minister and former TNCC Chief EVKS Elangovan contested it and won by a margin of over 50,000 votes. The other bypoll was held for Vilavancode seat along with the recent Lok Sabha polls on April 19 following the resignation of Congress MLA S.Vijayadharani, who had quit upon joining the BJP. The Congress retained the seat winning by a margin of nearly 41,000 votes...////...