A vote of confidence amid turmoil: DMK's resounding victory in Vikravandi bypoll

DMK’s campaign on social justice and development and other incentives paid off.

For the DMK, it was important not only to win the Vikravandi by-election but also to win it with a big margin. That the DMK candidate Anniyur Siva did so with a 67,757 vote difference is quite an achievement given the turmoil after the hooch tragedy that claimed 65 lives in neighbouring Kallakurichi.

The result also defeats, or at least delays, any prospect of the PMK rallying behind the AIADMK, which had boycotted the poll and extended tacit support to the PMK candidate C Anbumani. It is obvious that DMK is the biggest beneficiary of AIADMK’s boycott of the Vikravandi bye-election.

The high voter turnout, of 82.48 percent, unusual in an ordinary bye-election, but not when the political stakes are high and incentives are on offer, also consolidated the DMK’s position, allowing it to debunk claims of voter disenchantment with the government after the illicit liquor deaths.

DMK netted 63.66 percent, PMK 28.66 percent and the NTK’s Abinaya Ponnivalavan lost her deposit with 5.4 percent. In the recently ended Lok Sabha election DMK ally VCK which contested from the Villupuram parliamentary constituency, received a 39.57 percent vote share in the Vikravandi segment, and the AIADMK, with just DMDK as its ally, 35.83 percent. In the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, DMK had gathered 48.41 percent vote share in the Vikravandi constituency. This indicates that AIADMK's supporters went with the ruling Dravidian party. DMK’s campaign on social justice and development and other incentives paid off.

The result means that the PMK has nothing to be grateful to the AIADMK for. The AIADMK boycott did little for opposition unity. Other than saving it the embarrassment of a loss, the AIADMK achieved nothing. Allegations of poll irregularities and cash transfers abound, but these are unlikely to yield much political purchase.

The DMK got what it wanted in Vikravandi, the AIADMK only managed to avoid what it feared the most: a defeat. The PMK is where it was as a junior partner in a third front.