Chennai: The battle lines are drawn for the by-polls to Madhuranthagam and Dharapuram with the Left parties announcing their decision to contest in both the seats, turning the elections into a five-cornered contest.
The two parties in separate press meets in Chennai and Trichy announced the decision to contest the elections while asserting that they would continue their outside support to the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam. The leaders said they had not joined the government or the TVK alliance.
Addressing the media in Chennai, CPI state secretary M. Veerapandian said his party would contest in the Dharapuram while the CPI(M) would field its candidate in Madhuranthagam. They decided to field candidates since they do not want to support any of the parties like the TVK, DMK and AIADMK. He said the Left parties are not in alliance with any party at the moment and they could continue with the same stand. The CPI leader said the Left parties would announce their candidates on September 15.
CPI(M) state secretary P. Shamugam who met the media at Tiruchyi, a few minutes after the CPI press meet said contesting the by-polls independently would not amount to withdrawing support to the TVK government. He said the Left parties had several differences with the government including the economic policy of seeking investments from abroad instead of encouraging local industries.
Already the TVK, DMK and AIADMK had announced their candidates and Naam Thamizhar Katchi leader Seeman had confirmed that his party would contest the by-polls. The Congress, MDMK, VCK and IUML have declared their support to the TVK nominees Maragadham Kumaravel in Madhuranthagam and P. Sathyabama in Dharapuram.
The DMDK, which is the only DMK ally, announced that it would support the DMK. The BJP has said it would support its ally the AIADMK in the by-elections. However, the AIADMK ally PMK has not come out with its support and remains silent on the by-polls. Its support is crucial for the AIADMK since it polled 9.12 per cent when it went alone in the 2016 Assembly elections and bagged 9.57 per cent votes in the segment in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In the 2026 Assembly elections, Madhuranthagam seat was won by the AIADMK’s Maragadham Kumaravel who is now with the TVK. She polled 34.95 per cent votes, the DMK got 30.18 votes and the TVK received 31.32 per cent. Losing the PMK backing could make a huge difference to the AIADMK’s chances in the by-polls while its votes are negligible in Dharapuram going by past poll history.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
