RK Nagar bypoll on Dec 21

A day after allocating the symbol to the ruling AIADMK, the Election Commission on Friday announced that the RK Nagar bypoll would be held on December 21, setting the ball rolling for the first and crucial electoral battle in the state after the death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

The filing of nominations would begin on November 27 and the counting of votes would be taken up on December 24, the Commission stated. Despite receiving the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol, the bypoll would be a mega challenge for the ruling AIADMK and a battle of survival for TTV Dinakaran. The Model Code of Conduct has come into force with effect from the date of announcement of the poll schedule.

The AIADMK, DMK and AIADMK (Amma) are certain to enter the fray, while BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan has said her party would hold a meeting of office-bearers to decide whether to contest or not. The decision of DMDK, MDMK, PMK, VCK and Left parties is yet to be announced, while the Congress and the IUML have announced their support for the DMK.

It is also the first bypoll for the DMK after MK Stalin took over as its working president and the party needs a crushing victory to prove his repeated assertions that the AIADMK government under Palaniswami had lost the mandate to govern the state.

Although, Chennai is considered DMK’s stronghold, RK Nagar is the one seat that was won by the AIADMK in the first Assembly elections it faced in 1977.

Besides, the party had won the seat in 1991, 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016 and its ally Congress in 1984. The DMK had won the seat only twice in 1989 and 1996. Though, the DMK had lost seven times in the past, it has shown a consistent vote base of about 33 per cent, which could be sufficient for it to win the bypoll. Dinakaran on Friday announced that he would contest the RK Nagar bypoll to save the party, Amma’s legacy and retrieve the symbol.

Bypoll will also be held at Sikandara (UP), Pakke-Kasang and Likbali (Arunachal Pradesh) and Sabang (Bengal) on December 21.