Following a delay in the declaration of the results of the Dharapuram (Reserved) constituency, DMK candidate N. Kayalvizhi, who contested against BJP State president L. Murugan, was formally declared the winner with a margin of 1,393 in the early hours of Monday.
Official sources familiar with the developments told The Hindu that the result was announced by the Returning Officer of Dharapuram (Reserved) constituency Pavankumar G. Giriyappanavar at around 12.30 a.m. at the counting centre in Tiruppur.
While Mr. Murugan was leading in terms of number of votes since the beginning of the counting exercise till the 13th round, Ms. Kayalvizhi took a surprise lead from the 14th round. The margin of lead began with a few hundred votes and widened to over 2,000 votes and by the 24th and penultimate round of counting, her margin of lead was only 668 votes.
As the 25th and final round commenced on Sunday evening, one control unit of electronic voting machine (EVM) for polling station 298A was reported to have malfunctioned. At this point, agents from the BJP and two other Independent candidates petitioned Mr. Giriyappanavar demanding recount of votes including postal votes.
At around 9.30 p.m., Mr. Giriyappanavar issued an order rejecting the petitions demanding the recount of votes, the sources said. “...In case the victory margin is less than the total number of postal votes received, then only there should be a mandatory verification of all rejected postal ballots. Since the margin is more, the question of re-verification/recount does not arise,” he said in the order.
Mr. Giriyappanavar ordered the counting of the voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machine for the malfunctioned EVM in a separate 26th round. Following the counting of the 393 votes in the EVM, Ms. Kayalvizhi still maintained the lead over Mr. Murugan.
Following the counting of the remaining postal votes, it was seen that Ms. Kayalvizhi garnered 89,986 votes and Mr. Murugan secured 88,593 votes in total, following which she was formally declared as the winner of Dharapuram (Reserved) constituency, according to the sources. The Returning Officer handed over the certificate to Ms. Kayalvizhi authorising her victory in the presence of DMK candidate for Kangeyam constituency M.P. Saminathan, who was present at the counting centre following his victory.
