The counting of votes of R K Nagar Assembly constituency was stopped for about 15 minutes after conflict breaks out between the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and party's sidelined leader TTV Dhinakaran's supporters outside Queen Mary's college.

Chennai district Electoral Officer said, "Police have re-setup peace, nothing alarming. The compilation of second round of (counting of votes) is going on."The outcome for R K Nagar Assembly constituency is hoped-for to be out by afternoon, and security has been kicked up outside the vote-counting centres.

On December 21, the voting at 258 polling points took place properly under heavy security, which included 2,500 state police personnel and 15 companies of Central Armed Police Forces guarding the centres.The key campaigner in the fray are E Madhusudhanan from AIADMK, sidelined AIADMK leader T T V Dhinakaran, who is contesting as an independent, N Maruthu Ganesh from DMK and Karu Nagarajan from BJP.The competition is primarily between AIADMK and Congress-backed DMK, who usually enjoy the constituency's mandate.

The bypoll was necessitated after the death of former chief minister Jayalalithaa last year in December and is speculated to be the litmus test for the leadership of E Panneerselvam.