The ruling All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam established a comfortable lead over its closest rival DMDK in the by-election to Pudukkottai Assembly constituency on Friday.
At the end of the fourth round of counting of votes polled in the June 12 by-poll, AIADMK's Karthik Thondaiman has secured 17,871 votes against Jahir Husssain's 6,249, a lead of 11,622 votes, officials said.
The by-poll witnessed a virtual straight contest between AIADMK and Vijaykant-led Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam. The Dravida Munetra Kazhagam and Vaiko's Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam did not contest the by-election.
The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Communist party of India Member of Parliament SP Muthukumaran in a road accident on April 1.