The ruling AIADMK on Thursday retained the Sattur Assembly seat in the by-election caused by the disqualification of its MLA S. G. Subramanian.
AIADMK candidate M.S.R. Rajavarman scraped through with a slender margin of 456 votes in the last round of counting that saw anxious moments. Two of the electronic voting machines that developed technical snag were kept aside and it was planned to count votes with paper slips of the corresponding VVPATs. A lot of commotion was witnessed in the counting hall with counting agents whistling and howling as the last round was to be taken up. However, a last-minute attempt by a technical team set things right and votes were counted on the EVMs.
While Mr. Rajavarman secured 76,977 votes, his nearest rival, V. Srinivasan, got 76,521. Mr. Subramanian, who contested on the AMMK ticket, got 12,511 votes, N. Sundararaj of MNM got 3,934 and P. Suresh Kumar of Naam Tamilar Katchi 5,042.
A total of 1,728 voters, including 31, who used postal ballots, opted for NOTA, while 97 votes were rejected.
Among the valid postal votes, 802 went to the DMK but they could not turn the fortune in its favour. The AIADMK candidate secured 157 postal votes and Mr. Subramanian 83.