The voting had ended for the bitterly fought by-elections in Chennai's RK Nagar assembly seat on 21 December 2017. The seat had fallen vacant a year earlier when J Jayalalithaa, who had represented the constituency twice, died. The two main contestants were the AIADMK's E Madhusudhanan and TTV Dhinakaran, the powerful nephew of Jayalalithaa's closest aide, VK Sasikala, who was running as an independent. Cauvery TV, a local news channel, aired the results of an exit poll after voting that showed Mr Dhinakaran ahead. In less than half-an-hour, the channel disappeared from the state-run Arasu Cable TV Corporation's network.
