Madurantakam by-election: Will AIADMK ‘bastion’ fall to TVK’s growing popularity?

In the 2021 assembly elections, the ruling AIADMK was swept away by a DMK wave in KTCC districts (Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Chengalpattu and Chennai), except for a single seat – Madurantakamu. Maragatham Kumaravel, a veteran AIADMK leader and the party’s 2014-19 Lok Sabha member, stood tall among the ruins. It won the seat again in the 2026 elections amid a TVK wave in the region, leading to claims that it was an AIADMK stronghold.

Then came the twist. Barely three weeks after the results were announced, Ms. Maragatham along with five of her colleagues resigned from the assembly and joined TVK. She is now recast as the TVK candidate for the Madurantakam by-election scheduled for October 6.

On Friday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay held a four-and-a-half-hour roadshow in the constituency. People lined up in large numbers along the entire route, which crossed the constituency and touched about three dozen villages.

If people’s voter turnout translates into votes for the party, TVK would win. But often what is apparent is not real, warns Ashok, a grocery store owner in Ayyanar Nagar. “Not everyone who gathers at Vijay’s rallies would vote for TVK. I also went there to catch a glimpse of him, but I might not vote for them,” he says.

In the interview, he will reveal a fundamental fact that can easily decide the fate of the elections: the attitude of the PMK. The party has announced that it will remain neutral during the by-election after a spat with alliance partner AIADMK over candidate selection. While there are unconfirmed reports of possible backchannel talks between PMK and TVK, Mr Ashok says supporters on the ground are not yet aware of the party’s stance. “In the last two elections (2021 and 2026), PMK was in alliance with AIADMK and the candidate won. So whoever supports PMK will have an advantage,” he claims.

There may be some meat to this argument, especially since the Vanniyars, the PMK’s main support base, constitute more than 30% of the electorate. They are the largest group after the Scheduled Caste communities, which constitute a little over 40% of the electorate. Madurantakam is a constituency reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates.

As the campaign draws to a close on Sunday evening, the opposition candidates seem to have struck a common tune: the election has been forced on the people of Madurantakam.

P. Suganthi, a CPI(M) candidate, said people voted for TVK with the hope of change, but the switch to an AIADMK MLA soon after the elections showed that the party was not much different from the BJP at the Centre. During her election campaign on Friday, she was met with unsavory comments from DMK supporters in Athimanam village, perhaps a sign of tension between the two former alliance partners.

Taking a similar stance, B. Valarmati, a former AIADMK minister, said the people of the constituency felt betrayed by Ms. Maragatham’s resignation within 21 days of the declaration of results. Recalling the days when she helped Ms. Maragatham during her electoral debut in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, AIADMK candidate S. Kanitha Sampath said people would react to her “betrayal” on October 6.

I. Paranthamen, DMK candidate, said that this is an unnecessary electoral drive on the people in an undemocratic manner and they will respond wisely. “People are angry. They are struggling with rising prices, increasing the electricity tariff and changing the conditions of the rural employment guarantee system,” he said.

Near the bus stop, a group of white-clad individuals adorned themselves with red stoles and distributed leaflets. They were members of the United Communist Party of India (UCPI) and canvassed votes for the DMK. “Though we come from the Left ecosystem, we are not with the CPI and CP(M) and we believe that the DMK is the only powerful ally to take over the power of the communal forces in Tamil Nadu,” said Bhaskaran, its state secretary.

While the campaign was in its final leg, 72-year-old Babyamma sat under a banyan tree in Mettupalayam and watched the “rigmarole” pass by. When asked who she would vote for, she said she was undecided, though she had voted for irattai ilai (two leaves, the poll symbol of the AIADMK) in the past. Asked if she liked Chief Minister Vijay, she said, “He came (to power) and prices went up.”

Published – 4 Oct 2026 0:50 AM IST