The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's Ghouse Basha won the October 11 bypolls to the Madurai central constituency on Tuesday by an impressive margin of 30,354 votes over his nearest rival Rajan Chellappa of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

Ghouse Basha polled 51240 votes, Rajan Chellappa 20,886 votes and M R Pannerselvam of Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam 17,312 votes.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of DMK minister P G R Palanivelrajan.

The DMK margin has increased as compared to the May 8 polls to the state Assembly, in which Palanivelrajan won by a margin of over 9,000 votes.

All three key players in the state politics, DMK, AIADMK and DMDK had taken the bypolls seriously, with their leaders M Karunanidhi, Jayalalithaa and Vijayakanth campaigning extensively for more than two days in the constituency.