Ruling AIADMK established a comfortable lead over its closest rival DMDK in the by-election to Pudukkottai Assembly constituency today.

At the end of the fourth round of counting of votes polled in the June 12 bypoll, AIADMK’s Karthik Thondaiman has secured 17,871 votes against Jahir Husssain’s 6,249, a lead of 11,622 votes, officials said.

The bypolls witnessed a virtual straight contest between AIADMK and Vijaykant-led DMDK. DMK and Vaiko’s MDMK did not contest the by-elections.

The bypolls were necessitated by the death of CPI MLA SP Muthukumaran in a road accident on April 1.