Chennai, Feb. 8 -- In what turned out to be a one-horse race, ruling DMK candidate V C Chandrakumar has taken a sizeable lead over his rival in the Erode East Assembly constituency bypoll, as the counting of continued on Saturday.

As per the latest reports, Mr Chandrakumar was leading by more than 50,000 voters over his only rival Ms Seethalakshmi of Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK).

At the half way stage of counting, which began at 0800 hrs amid tight security, Chandrakumar polled 63,984 votes as against 13,945 by the NTK candidate.

With the major political parties, including the main Opposition AIADMK, its ally, the DMDK, the BJP-Led NDA and its allies, including the PMK and the nascent Tamilar Vettri Kazhagam of Kollywood actor Vijay, b...