Chennai, Mar 5 : Thumping victory of the DMK-backed candidate and veteran Congress leader EVKS Elangovan from Erode East constituency has given the Secular Progressive Alliance an edge for the 2024 general elections.

Though bypolls have a different voting pattern and need not necessarily reflect the mood of the voters in the state, political pundits are of the opinion that the huge margin of victory is a clear indicator of a positive reflection of the rule of DMK government headed by M. K. Stalin.

In the February 27 bypolls, EVKS Elangovan defeated AIADMK leader K. S. Thenarasu who contested as the National Democratic Alliance candidate.

The margin of victory of EVKS Elangovan was something even the DMK front didn't expect. Elangovan won the seat by a margin of 66,233 votes and in the 2021 assembly elections, the DMK front candidate and Elengovan's son E. Thirumahan Everaa had won the seat by a margin of 8,904 votes.

The by-election was necessitated by the death of Thirumahan Everaa.

The margin of victory was around seven times more than the margin with which Thirumahan Everaa had won, and this has sent danger signals to the AIADMK, BJP camp.

BJP state president K. Annamalai tried to downplay the victory, saying it was due to sympathy factor but the under current in the polls were favouring the DMK front from the word go.

The AIADMK is in a bad shape in Tamil Nadu after the exit of three important leaders of the party -- V.K. Sasikala , the close aide of late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa who later went on to become the party interim general secretary, her nephew TTV Dhinakaran and foremost among them former Chief Minister and party coordinator, O. Panneerselvam.