Polling day in Madurantakam and Dharapuram: Vijay's TVK faces its first electoral test

The first electoral verdict on C. Joseph Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam government arrives today. Voters in the Madurantakam (SC) constituency of Chengalpattu district and the Dharapuram (SC) constituency of Tiruppur district are casting ballots from 7 AM to 6 PM under heavy security, with counting of votes scheduled for October 9. The bypolls are widely described as an acid test for a government barely four months old. TVK stormed to power in the April 23 Assembly elections, and Vijay has treated these two seats as a prestige battle. In an unusual move for a sitting Tamil Nadu chief minister, he campaigned personally for four days in a by-election — a roadshow through nearly 40 villages from Mamandur on GST Road in Madurantakam on September 25, and a closing roadshow in Dharapuram on September 30 backing P. Sathyabama. The Election Commission ordered campaigning to end at 6 PM on Sunday, barred all public meetings until 6 AM on polling day, and ordered outsiders to leave both constituencies. The state government declared a public holiday in the two segments, and Chief Secretary M. Sai Kumar ordered that employees in Chengalpattu, Tiruppur and neighbouring districts who are registered voters in the two seats get a paid holiday. Voting is being conducted on electronic voting machines with VVPAT slips. Both bypolls exist for the same uncomfortable reason: elected MLAs walked out within weeks of winning. Former AIADMK legislators Maragatham Kumaravel (Madurantakam) and P. Sathyabama (Dharapuram) resigned on May 25, less than three weeks after entering the Assembly, and joined the ruling TVK. Both are now contesting as TVK nominees — asking voters to send back, at public expense, the very representatives they sent months earlier. The field is crowded. In Madurantakam, TVK's Kumaravel faces DMK's Paranthaman, AIADMK's Kanitha Sampath, CPM's Suganthi and NTK's Janakiraman among 28 candidates. In Dharapuram, TVK's Sathyabama is up against DMK's S. Suganya, AIADMK's Banumathi, CPI's Lakshmanan and NTK's Karthika in a 22-cornered fight. The contest has exposed cracks inside the ruling formation itself: the CPI and CPM back the TVK government but are fighting it in these bypolls. The DMK, led by president M. K. Stalin and Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin, ran an intensive campaign with former ministers camping in both constituencies. Vijay, in his final Dharapuram push, warned voters he would not stay silent over what he called personal attacks on women during the campaign — a line aimed squarely at the DMK leadership. The stakes extend beyond two seats. Five more Assembly vacancies await bypolls, including Tiruchi (East), which Vijay himself resigned from. A defeat today would hand the opposition its first real weapon against a four-month-old government; a win would let the chief minister claim vindication for the resignations that forced this election in the first place. The verdict comes on October 9.