CHENNAI: TVK cleared its first litmus test barely five months after forming the govt in Tamil Nadu, winning the bypolls in two assembly constituencies. Though Madurantakam and Dharapuram presented different political terrains, TVK won both seats with comfortable margins by fielding former AIADMK MLAs Maragatham Kumaravel and P Sathyabama, who joined the ruling party just 20 days after the assembly election results in May.Sathyabama won Dharapuram by a margin of 9,471 votes, while Maragatham Kumaravel secured Madurantakam by 20,040 votes. DMK finished second in both seats, while AIADMK, which had won the two segments in the April assembly election, was pushed to the third place. The results increased TVK’s strength in the 234-member Assembly from 107 to 109.“This is a victory for political decorum and personal decency. It is a verdict against derogatory remarks targeting women, personal attacks and betrayal,’’ chief minister C Joseph Vijay said in an X post.“This winning streak will continue,’’ Vijay added. The ruling party has increased its vote share in Dharapuram from 23.2% in the April elections to 37%, while in Madurantakam, TVK gained roughly 9% vote share.DMK president M K Stalin called it a “temporary victory for betrayal,” while AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami said the results were a “success of money power won by murdering democracy and duping people with reels”.In Madurantakam, Maragatham built a steady lead from the first round of counting and widened the margin in successive rounds, finishing with 74,048 votes, defeating DMK candidate I Paranthamen. “The entire credit goes to our leader’s (Vijay) good governance and his assurance of Madurantakam’s development,’’ she said.Maragatham, who won the seat as an AIADMK candidate in April with 69,284 votes, increased her tally by about 4,700 votes after switching to TVK. In turn, DMK’s tally fell from 59,838 to 54,008, while AIADMK’s votes dropped from 69,284 to 47,450, compared to the assembly elections held five months back. The figures pointed to an erosion of AIADMK’s support base, say poll watchers.In the case of DMK, the drop was attributed to absence of key allies — Congress, VCK, IUML, MDMK and Left parties. CPM had fielded its own candidate here, while the other former allies are now backing TVK.In Dharapuram, Sathyabama, who had faced opposition in a few villages during her campaign, was trailing behind AIADMK candidate K Banumathi in the first five rounds. The trend shifted in the subsequent rounds when Sathyabama increased her tally, finally ending up with 66,841 votes. DMK’s K Suganya moved from the third spot to the second position with 57,370 votes, while AIADMK finished third with 45,280 votes.“There was a conspiracy to undemocratically defeat Sathyabama. But people rejected the conspirators,’’ said state revenue minister K A Sengottaiyan.The Left parties which contested alone in one seat each, put up a poor show forfeiting their deposits. CPI candidate in Dharapuram got 1,157 votes while CPM candidate in Madurantakam got 1,986 votes. NTK candidates too didn’t fare well. The party received 2,709 votes in Madurantakam and 5,268 votes in Dharapuram.Political analysts said the results present a mixed picture for TVK. While it was no surprise for a ruling party to win the bypoll, the winning margin was modest, considering the projections of one lakh vote margin by leaders such as Aadhav Arjuna, poll watchers said.
