Bypolls: Vote count exercise begins, early trends indicate advantage for TVK, AINRC

CHENNAI: Early trends emerging from counting of votes on Friday for the October 6 bypolls held in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry indicated an advantage for the ruling regimes led by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay and N Rangasamy.

In Tamil Nadu, as the counting of votes, which commenced at 8 am progressed, the ruling TVK was steadily marching ahead of its Dravidian rival, the DMK and AIADMK.

Similarly, early trends in the Union Territory of Puducherry appeared to be advantageous for the Chief Minister N Rangasamy-led AINRC. The party leads the NDA coalition ministry.

It remains to be seen if the trends continue to be the same.

The bypolls in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry are crucial not only for the incumbent TVK and AINRC regimes, but for the Opposition parties as well.

Byelections were held in Tamil Nadu's Madurantakam and Dharapuram, both SC reserved seats, besides Thattanchavady in Puducherry.

The elections were necessitated due to the resignation of incumbent MLAs, including Rangasamy in the respective segments.

In Madurantakam, 27 candidates are trying their luck and the key nominees are ruling TVK's Maragatham Kumaravel, DMK's I Paranthamen, AIADMK's Kanitha Sampath, CPI (M)'s P Suganthi, and NTK's Janakiraman.

As regards Dharapuram, P Sathyabama (TVK), S Suganya (DMK), K Bhanumathi (AIADMK), P Lakshmanan (CPI) and M Karthika (NTK) are the key contestants out of the total 22 nominees contesting in the bypoll.

In Thattanchavady, although a total of 11 candidates are in the fray, the battle is being seen as a 3-cornered one between ruling AINRC-led NDA, the Congress and its former ally DMK.

The elections are Vijay-led minority TVK regime's first electoral litmus test after it formed the government in May and a win is important as it needs numbers to get close to the majority mark in the Assembly.

The outcome of bypolls is crucial for the main opposition DMK too as this is the first time the McK Stalin-led party has faced the polls, after a long time, without the backing of erstwhile allies including the Congress, VCK, and Left parties.

TVK formed its first government with the support of Congress, VCK, and IUML in addition to outside backing from the Left parties.

The Left Front, which neither joined the TVK-led alliance nor the government, turned critical of the actor-turned politician-led government on several issues and fielded candidates for bypolls.

Although the CPI and CPI (M), who have four MLAs, have time and again committed themselves to continue to support the government from outside, the fact that they have been pretty critical of the TVK and its governance model have led to questions over the stability of the nearly five-month old new regime.

As regards the AIADMK, which ruled Tamil Nadu for over three decades is under immense pressure to make an electoral comeback.

In the 234-member strong Tamil Nadu Assembly where 118 is the simple majority, after resignations by legislators, seven vacancies arose.

While CM Vijay retained Perambur constituency and resigned the Tiruchirappalli (East) seat, AIADMK's Maragatham Kumaravel (Madurantakam), Sathyabama (Dharapuam), S Jayakumar (Perundurai), Esakki Subaya, (Ambasamudram), C Vijayabhaskar, (Viralimalai) and M R Vijayabhaskar, (Karur) resigned their seats.

Presently the TVK has 107 MLAs (including Speaker), DMK 59, AIADMK 41, Congress 5, PMK 4, CPI and CPI (M) two each, VCK 2 and IUML 2. BJP, DMDK, AMMK have one MLA each. Subsequently, the effective House strength is 227.