TVK joins ruling parties’ bypoll win streak, but with narrow margins

CHENNAI: By-elections in the State have often turned into opportunities for ruling parties to reinforce their political dominance. From the AIADMK’s sweeping victories under J Jayalalithaa to the DMK’s uninterrupted bypoll success in its tenure, the trend has now extended to the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), which has won its first electoral test after forming government, winning in Madurantakam and Dharapuram, albeit with narrower margins than those recorded by the major Dravidian majors in the past.

The pattern, however, has not been uniform. The AIADMK’s tenure under Edappadi K Palaniswami saw a notable exception: the party failed to win a majority of the 22 seats contested in 2019 by-elections, despite retaining its winning streak in several earlier contests. This was an exception, as AIADMK, under the less charismatic Palaniswami, was weakened by the breakaway TTV Dhinakaran faction. The then-opposition DMK won 13 seats, while the ruling party held on to only 9 constituencies. This followed the AIADMK's 2017 loss in RK Nagar, where TTV pushed the ruling party to second.

Exceptions aside, bypolls were always a ruling party's game in the last few decades, a trend sharpened by the infamous 'Tirumangalam formula' in 2009, when the then-ruling DMK used micromanagement and alleged cash-for-votes to romp home by around a 90,000-vote margin.

Jayalalithaa showed Vijayakant his place in the 2012 Sankarankovil bypoll after the DMDK left the alliance formed in 2011, comfortably winning the seat. The AIADMK candidate, S Muthuselvi, went on to secure a massive victory with 94,000 votes.

After securing a second consecutive term in 2016, the AIADMK extended its winning streak to Aravakurichi, Thanjavur and Thiruparankundram, where by-elections were held after the polls in the three constituencies were deferred during the Assembly election.

The DMK, in turn, maintained an unbroken record in by-elections during its tenure, with the party and its allies winning every contest, including the two Erode East by-elections and the polls in Vilavancode and Vikravandi.

The TVK has now joined this list of ruling parties that have won bypolls. Its wins in Madurantakam and Dharapuram mark the party’s first by-election test after coming to power. However, the relatively narrow victory margins distinguish its performance from the sweeping wins recorded by the AIADMK during Jayalalithaa’s tenure or the DMK's victory in Tirumangalam.

The results place the TVK within a familiar pattern in Tamil Nadu politics, where by-election victories have often favoured the party in power, even as the scale of the mandate has varied across governments and electoral contests.