Why an 'inconsequential' bypoll in Tamil Nadu is gathering importance

Viluppuram: Police personnel try to pacify workers of Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) and DMK following a scuffle between them, at Vikravandi in Viluppuram district (PTI)

Just a month after the Lok Sabha election results, an inconsequential by-election to an assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu might not garner much attention. The DMK has a comfortable majority in the House, and a loss in the Vikravandi bypoll will make no difference to its legislative agenda. With the principal opposition party, the AIADMK, boycotting the election, the stakes should be even lower.

But the by-election to Vikravandi, in Villupuram district, follows a hooch tragedy in the neighbouring district of Kallakurichi that killed 65 people. Chief minister MK Stalin is on the backfoot trying to explain away administrative and enforcement lapses that led to the flourishing of bootlegging. And the absence of the AIADMK, far from being a source of comfort, is a matter of worry as there could be a polarisation of votes turning it into a straight fight between the DMK and the PMK. Going by the PMK’s campaign, a rapproachment with the AIADMK is still very much in the realm of possibility.

The DMK greatly benefited from the three-way split of votes in the Lok Sabha election, which ended up as a fight between the AIADMK and the BJP for the second place. With the AIADMK not in the fray in the July 10 bye-election, the NDA ally, the PMK, has fielded C Anbumani from Vikravandi. For DMK, it is Anniyur Siva; the NTK has fielded Abinaya Ponnivalavan, who had contested from Dharmapuri seat in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls against PMK candidate Sowmya Anbumani. The bye-election was necessitated by the death of the DMK MLA N Pugazhendhi in April this year.

The DMK is leaving no stone unturned to retain the constituency, and a battery of state ministers, MPs and district secretaries are meeting people and reminding them about the schemes and achievements of the DMK government. The PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss, on the other hand, has been going door to door campaigning on the denial of 10.5 per cent reservation for Vanniyars.

Vikravandi electorate comprises large sections from the Vanniyar and Dalit communities and it is an AIADMK bastion. As the AIADMK is boycotting the bye-election, there is a clamour to bag their vote bank by both PMK and the NTK.  Both Ramadoss and NTK leader Seeman have sought votes from AIADMK supporters. Seeman even sent Abinaya to the opposition fast, led by AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswamy, related to the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy. Ramadoss has been claiming that AIADMK and NDA were both in the same camp with DMK as the common enemy.

Stalin has released a video listing how the DMK stood for social justice and backward communities and asked the Vikravandi electorate to ‘teach a lesson’ to the BJP-led alliance.

Ruling parties have had the upper hand in by-elections in Tamil Nadu for close to five decades. Voters see a bye-election as an opportunity to get some promises of development from the ruling party. But this time the DMK is facing a stern test despite sweeping the Lok Sabha polls and gaining the largest share of votes in the Vikravandi assembly segment.