Tamil Nadu bypoll underway

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The bypoll to Tamil Nadu's Tiruchirapalli-West (Trichy West) assembly constituency began on Thursday morning.

Though there are 16 candidates in the fray, the real fight is between AIADMK's M.Paranjothi and DMK's former transport minister K.N. Nehru.

Polling began at 8 a.m. at 240 voting booths. As many as 208,447 people are eligible to cast their votes.

According to poll officials, the election process will be webcast.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of AIADMK's Mariam Pitchai in an accident in May. In the April assembly polls, Pitchai defeated Nehru with a margin of around 7,000 votes.

In the 234 member assembly, the ruling AIADMK has 149 members, followed by DMDK 29, DMK 23, CPI-M 10, CPI 9, Congress 5, PMK 3, MMK 2, PT 2, All India Forward Bloc 1 and 1 vacant.