Senior DMK leader Durai Murugan has regretted that ‘money-power’ had eaten away the votes in R.K. Nagar, Chennai where independent Dinakaran is all set to win.

Trends at counting centres in R.K. Nagar till 03:15 p.m. indicated a huge win in store for independent candidate Dinakaran, who had greatly upset the calculations of not only the ruling AIDMK (which badly needed to retain the seat held by its ‘Amma’) but also the opposition DMK as the main opposition party had treated the R.K. Nagar by-polls as a precursor to ‘big things’ in the near future.

Reacting to the impending defeat, Durai Murugan conceded that the party could hardly do something against the money-power unleashed by Dinakaran and his supporters.  Marudhu Ganesh, a local, occupies the third place after Dinakaran and the AIADMK candidate Madhusudanan.

“Democracy has been killed and money-power has succeeded,” Durai Murugan remarked curtly when queried by newsmen about the DMK’s reaction to the result.