Counting of votes begins in Tamil Nadu

Chennai, May 23 (IANS) Counting of votes polled in 38 Lok Sabha and 22 Assembly constituencies where by-elections were held started in Tamil Nadu on Thursday morning.The postal votes will be counted first, followed by votes registered in the electronic voting machines.The electoral fate of 822 candidates in the 38 Lok Sabha seats and 406 candidates in the by-elections for Assembly seats will be known on Thursday.The Lok Sabha polls saw a four cornered contest. The two major fronts are: the AIADMK-led front comprising the PMK, BJP, DMDK, TMC, PT, PNK and others and the DMK-led front consisting of the Congress, MDMK, IUML, CPI, CPI-M, VCK, KMDK and IJK.The AMMK floated by independent legislator T.T.V. Dhinakaran and the MNM floated by actor-politician Kamal Haasan made their electoral debut.The prominent personalities in the electoral fray are: Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai (Karur), Union Minister and BJP's Pon Radhakrishnan (Kanniyakumari), H. Vasanthakumar (Congress-Kanniyakumari), Karti P. Chidambaram (Congress-Sivaganga), H. Raja (BJP-Sivaganga), Kanimozhi (DMK-Thoothukudi), Tamilisai Soundararajan (BJP-Thoothukudi), T.R. Baalu (DMK-Sriperumbudur), Dayanidhi Maran (DMK-Chennai Central), A. Raja (DMK-Nilgiris) and Anbumani Ramadoss (PMK-Dharmapuri).
--IANS vj/mr