Stakes High for Major Contenders in Triangular By-Poll Contests After 3 Decades
Though five parties including the Naam Thamizhar Katchi (NTK) and Left parties are contesting, the by-polls has turned into a triangular contest between the TVK and the two Dravidian parties which ruled the State earlier
Chennai: The by-polls in Madurantakam and Dharapuram for which the election campaign ended on Sunday hold high stakes for all the top three contenders, the ruling Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), the opposition DMK and the AIADMK.
Though five parties including the Naam Thamizhar Katchi (NTK) and Left parties are contesting, the by-polls has turned into a triangular contest between the TVK and the two Dravidian parties which ruled the State earlier.
Usually by-polls in Tamil Nadu used to be a direct fight between the two Dravidian parties and the last time there was a triangular fight in a by-poll was in 1994 after the formation of Vaiko’s MDMK. The by-polls to Perudurai and Mylapore became a triangular contest in 1994 and the ruling AIADMK won both seats. The MDMK took the second place in Perundurai and the DMK in Mylapore.
After more than three decades, Madurantakam and Dharapuram are witnessing a triangular fight. The DMK and AIADMK have not uttered a word against each other and run a similar campaign of defeating the ‘betrayers’ who resigned their MLA seats and crossed over to the TVK. There was no such campaign in 2009 when MDMK MLA ‘Cumbum’ N. Ramakrishnan and AIADMK MLA Anitha R. Radhakrishnan quit their legislator posts and contested as the DMK candidates in a by-poll. At that time, former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi was running a government with only 96 MLAs, 22 short of majority.
The TVK leaders are confident of big victories in both the seats after the campaign of their leader Vijay. The opposition hopes to defeat the TVK in at least one seat as it will be enough to claim that a TVK victory is a flash in the pan and it has lost people’s confidence after four months. A victory for the TVK will raise its tally to 109 MLAs and it could assert that it enjoys people’s support and remains a popular government.
A defeat or a third-place finish for the DMK will mean that its allegations of law & order deterioration based on isolated crime incidents and power outages was not taken seriously by the people. The DMK has been giving many reasons including children’s campaign, film craze and social media campaign as the reasons for its defeat in the 2026 Assembly elections besides stating that the support for Vijay will be short-lived.
If the DMK loses, its hopes of bouncing back immediately will take a heavy blow and the cadre too will be demoralised. A third-place finish in both the seats will put a question mark on the party being the alternative to the TVK.
A poor performance for the AIADMK will mean that the people’s court had rejected the charges of ‘horse-trading’ by the TVK. The party’s support base may face further erosion, and more MLAs could walk away from the party. Even if the general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami manages to hold on to his leadership position, the AIADMK may face the local body elections as a more weakened party.