Considered a dead rubber contest with the principal Opposition party
AIADMK boycotting it, the ruling DMK registered a landslide victory in
the bypoll for the Tamil Nadu Assembly from the Erode East
constituency with a huge margin of over 80,000 votes, defeating the
Tamil nationalist party ‘Naam Tamilar Katchi’ (NTK), the Dravidian
major’s only rival in the fray.

The DMK candidate VC Chandirakumar polled a whopping 1,15,709 votes
while the NTK’s MK Seethalakshmi secured 24,151, accounting for 15.59
per cent.

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Of the 46 candidates, the fight was between the DMK and the NTK as
most of them were independents with some from tiny political parties.
Besides the AIADMK, its ally the DMDK, as well as the BJP and its
allies, including the PMK and the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), have
stayed away from the election, accusing the DMK of employing money and
muscle power besides misusing official machinery to its advantage in
byelections.

The bypoll was necessitated following the demise of Congress veteran
and former Union Minister EVKS Elangovan, who was elected in the
byelection 2023 after the untimely death of his son, Thirumagan
Everaa.

This time, Congress gave the seat to the DMK, acceding to the request
of its dominant alliance partner. This was because, Erode, situated in
the western Tamil Nadu known as the Kongu belt, has been a hunting
ground of the AIADMK and the DMK wanted to capture that region as the
principal opposition party is on the decline.

While Elangovan of the Congress, riding on the DMK’s shoulders won by
polling 1,10,156 votes in 2023, this time the DMK, which entered the
fray, registered a thumping victory with 1,15,709 votes, accounting
for 74.7 per cent. This was achieved even without the chief minister
or any of his cabinet colleagues hitting the campaign trail, except
for local Minister S Muthusamy and an occasional appearance by
Kanimozhi, MP.

While analysts were unanimous about the DMK’s victory, the party
breaking the previous bypoll record has come as a surprise. Even more
surprising was the NTK securing double the votes it had polled last
time. However, the NTK which received 10,817 votes (6.35 per cent),
last time, had performed creditably, doubling up its vote share. And
this, analysts believe has changed the bipolar electoral field in
Tamil Nadu into a multipolar one.