On the eve of polling in Madurantakam, the ruling TVK's candidate is facing the most damaging question a candidate can face — not from a rival's speech, but from her own sworn statements.
K. Maragatham Kumaravel, the TVK's nominee for the October 6 Madurantakam (SC) bye-election, filed two election affidavits five months apart: one in April 2026, when she won the seat on the AIADMK's Two Leaves symbol, and one in September 2026, when she filed as the TVK's candidate. The two documents describe the same woman, the same husband, and the same past financial years. But the incomes declared in them are wildly different — by a combined ₹1.4 crore.
The Justice has independently verified both sets of figures from the public affidavit records (the Association for Democratic Reforms' myneta database, compiled without addition or subtraction from the Election Commission's affidavit archive). They match, to the rupee, the comparison now circulating widely on Tamil social media. Here is what the two sworn statements say.
THE CANDIDATE HERSELF
In the April affidavit, Maragatham Kumaravel declared her own income-tax-return incomes as: 2024-25 — ₹12,57,000; 2023-24 — ₹12,57,000; 2022-23 — ₹13,10,000; 2021-22 — ₹6,25,480. Four-year total: ₹44,49,480.
In the September affidavit, for the very same financial years, she declared: 2024-25 — ₹5,87,840; 2023-24 — ₹4,12,620; 2022-23 — ₹4,14,500; 2021-22 — ₹4,98,700. Four-year total: ₹19,13,660.
The same person's income for 2024-25 is shown as ₹12,57,000 in one affidavit and ₹5,87,840 in the other — a gap of ₹6,69,160 in a single year. For 2023-24 the gap is ₹8,44,380; for 2022-23, ₹8,95,500.
HER HUSBAND
The mismatch is even starker for her husband, Thaiyur S. Kumaravel, a businessman. April affidavit: 2024-25 — ₹30,04,140; 2023-24 — ₹28,05,870; 2022-23 — ₹37,70,720; 2021-22 — ₹40,45,430. Four-year total: ₹1,36,26,160.
September affidavit, same years: 2024-25 — ₹5,30,950; 2023-24 — ₹6,83,660; 2022-23 — ₹4,92,640; 2021-22 — ₹4,36,100. Four-year total: ₹21,43,350.
His declared 2021-22 income collapses from ₹40,45,430 to ₹4,36,100 — barely a tenth. The couple's combined four-year declared income falls from ₹1,80,75,640 to ₹40,57,010: a difference of ₹1,40,18,630.
One detail in the records is consistent with her life story: in April her "source of income" is listed as "MLA Salary"; by September, after she resigned her Assembly seat on May 25, it reads "MLA Pension." Her husband's source remains "Business" in both. Everything else about their identities matches across the two filings — the same names, the same voter registration, the same educational qualifications. There is no question these are two affidavits of the same two people.
WHY IT MATTERS
An election affidavit is a sworn statement. Section 125A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, makes furnishing false information in it punishable with imprisonment of up to six months, a fine, or both. The circulating graphic claims her disqualification is "certain" — that overstates the law, which requires prosecution and conviction first. But the legal exposure is real, and the political question is unavoidable: past income-tax filings are historical facts. They cannot change between April and September. So which affidavit told the truth?
Notably, her September nomination survived scrutiny — the Election Commission accepted it on September 17-18 along with 29 others in Madurantakam. The returning officer did not flag the mismatch. That does not settle the matter; scrutiny checks paperwork, not the truth of every declared figure.
WHO SHE IS — AND WHAT'S AT STAKE
Maragatham Kumaravel, 43, is no political lightweight. She was the AIADMK's Lok Sabha MP from Kancheepuram (2014-19), won Madurantakam in 2021 and again on April 23, 2026 — defeating the TVK's own Ezhil Catherine by 7,194 votes — then resigned on May 25 and joined Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay's TVK the same day. She is now the party's deputy general secretary.
The Madurantakam bye-election, alongside Dharapuram, is the first electoral test of Vijay's fledgling TVK government, and the campaign has been bitter. AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami has called her a "traitor" and accused the TVK of horse-trading; the AIADMK has separately petitioned the Election Commission alleging cash distribution for her in Madurantakam. The DMK has fielded former Egmore MLA I. Paranthaman, making it a five-cornered fight with the AIADMK's Kanitha Sampath, the CPI(M)'s P. Suganthi and the NTK's Janakiraman.
The affidavit question lands in this already-charged atmosphere a day before polling. As of publication, neither Maragatham Kumaravel nor the TVK has publicly explained how the same financial years came to carry such different incomes in two sworn statements. It is possible — though nothing on the public record suggests it — that revised income-tax returns were filed between the two dates; if so, she has not said so.
Voters in Madurantakam go to the polls tomorrow. They will choose between five candidates. But one of them now carries a question that no campaign speech can answer for her: when a candidate's own two affidavits disagree by ₹1.4 crore, which one did she swear to truthfully?
AMP
