Chennai/ Thiruvananthapuram:
AIADMK has established a comfortable lead over its closest rival DMDK in the byelection to Pudukkottai Assembly constituency.
At the end of the fourth round of counting of votes polled in the June 12 bypoll, AIADMK's Karthik Thondaiman had secured 17,871 votes against Jahir Husssain's 6,249, a lead of 11,622 votes, officials said.
The by-poll, necessitated by the death of CPI MLA SP Muthukumaran in a road accident on April 1, saw a straight contest between the ruling AIADMK and Vijaykant-led DMDK. DMK and Vaiko's MDMK did not contest the by-election.
In Kerala, Congress heading the ruling United Democratic Front wrested the Neyyattinkara Assembly seat from the CPI-M-led LDF in the keenly fought by-election.
UDF candidate R Selvaraj defeated his nearest LDF rival S Lawrence by over 5,000 votes.
The by-poll, held on June 4, was necessitated by resignation of the assembly membership by Selvaraj, who won the seat located near Thiruvananthapuram in 2011 assembly polls on a CPI(M) ticket.
After resigning as MLA and quitting the CPI (M), Selvaraj joined the Congress to recontest as a UDF candidate for the keenly fought by-poll.