1:15 PM: Jayalalithaa won RK Nagar seat, defeats CPI's Mahendran by over 1,51,252 votes. Jayalalithaa secured 1,60,921 votes and CPI's Mahendran managed to get 9,669 votes.
1:03 PM: Jayalalithaa thanks voters, party workers, terms her victory as precursor to Assembly polls
12:26 PM: After 14th round of counting, Jayalalithaa secures 1,35,517 votes and CPI's Mahendran manages to get only 8,097 votes.
12:05 PM: 13th round of counting ends, Jayalalitha gets 1,26,666 and CPI's Mahendran 7,765 votes.
11:52 AM: After 12th round of counting, Jayalalithaa secures 1,18,043 and CPI Mahendran's only 7,215.
11:15 AM: As ninth round of voting ends, Jayalalithaa leads by over 80,000 votes. The Chief Minister gets 86,564 votes and CPI's Mahendran gets 5,977 votes.
10:52 AM: After seventh round of counting, Jayalalithaa gets 67,899 votes and CPI's Mahendran 4,876 votes.
10:34 AM: After sixth round of counting, Jayalalithaa gets 58,297 votes, CPI's Mahendran 4,349, Independent 1,020 and NOTA 505.
10:15 am: Fifth round of counting ends, Jayalalithaa gets 49,000 votes and CPI's Mahendran gets 3,713 votes.
9:55 AM: After fourth round of voting, Jayalalithaa gets 38,406 votes and CPI's Mahendran gets 2,809 votes.
9:38 AM: Third round counting end, Jayalalitha gets 30329 votes whereas CPI's Mahendran only 2,297 votes.
Chennai: The counting of votes has begun on Tuesday for the Radhakrishnan Nagar Nagar Assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu, from where Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa is seeking re-election. A record 74.4 per cent turnout of voters marked the bypoll to RK Nagar seat.
Even as the counting of votes is underway, celebrations have already begun outside the chief minister's residence. After first round of counting, Jayalalithaa got 9,546 votes while CPI's Mahendran got 930 votes.
After CPI, AIADMK's main rival in this bypoll, alleged booth-capturing repolling was held at one of the booths. Repolling in Booth No 181 was announced by the EC after it was found that the Presiding Officer allowed some voters 'not duly enrolled in the electoral roll'.
The party's candidate C Mahendran said CPI in its complaint had alleged that electoral malpractices were found in about 50 booths but "repolling has been done only in this booth and it is an eyewash."
Besides Jayalalithaa and Mahendran, 26 others, including maverick social activist 'Traffic' Ramaswamy alias KR Ramaswamy, are in fray for the byelection which comes a year ahead of the Assembly polls.
Main opposition parties--DMK, DMDK, Congress, BJP and PMK-- have boycotted the bypoll.
One of the smallest constituencies in Tamil Nadu, R K Nagar has 1,20,210 men voters and 1,23,014 women voters and 77 voters of the other category, the third gender.
The by-election was necessitated by AIADMK's P Vetrivel vacating the seat in May to enable Jayalalithaa seek re-election post her acquittal by the Karnataka High Court in a graft case.
Jayalalithaa has to fulfil the constitutional requirement of getting elected as MLA within six months of becoming Chief Minister.
The AIADMK supremo had returned to the top post on May 23 after being acquitted in the case. She had been convicted in the case in September last by a trial court in Bengaluru.
(With additional information from PTI)
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