As the DMK-led alliance has secured a considerable lead in a majority of Tamil Nadu’s 234 Assembly constituencies, party cadres have started to gather at the party headquarters.
It is said that DMK is expected to maintain the lead and finally win the poll to capture power in the state after a gap of 10 years.
According to Election Commission data, the DMK is leading in 119 seats, while of its allies, Congress leads in 12 seats, the CPI, the CPI-M in two seats each, and VCK in 3 seats, taking the tally to 138 seats, as against the halfway mark of 118 seats.
On the other hand, the AIADMK-led alliance is leading in 80 seats, as per Election Commission data.
DMK President M.K. Stalin and his son Udhayanidhi Stalin are comfortably leading in their Kolathur and Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni seats, respectively.
The majority of the pre-poll opinion survey and the exit polls predicted a large win for the 10 year power-starved DMK.
While counting began at 8 a.m., by noon the trend shows that the DMK-led alliance will come to power in Tamil Nadu.
Counting of votes is underway at 75 centres in the state with the deployment of state police and central paramilitary forces for security.
With the spread of coronavirus, counting agents and others were allowed into the counting centres on the production of Covid-19 negative test report or should have been vaccinated twice.
(With IANS inputs)