Chief minister C Joseph Vijay at an election campaign rally in support of party candidate P Sathyabama (behind second from right), ahead of the Dharapuram assembly constituency bypoll on Sept 30
PMK had reportedly proposed a dalit from the northern belt as the common candidate in Madurantakam, but Palaniswami announced the AIADMK nominee without discussion. AIADMK’s failure to bring PMK on board appears to have proved costly in Madurantakam, which has a sizeable vanniyar electorate. And Vijay called up Anbumani Ramadoss to convey birthday wishes soon after the results.
The three-year-old party mounted a determined effort to wrest the seats from AIADMK and increase its assembly tally from 107 to 109. AIADMK’s vote share in Dharapuram plunging from 40% to 25% indicates a possible split in gounder votes that benefited TVK.
“It shows the people’s faith in Vijay has increased,” said revenue minister K A Sengottaiyan. And this, overcoming an opposition campaign that harped on betrayal (by the MLAs who resigned from AIADMK) and horse-trading (by TVK who took them in). Vijay’s extensive campaign in the two constituencies this time added to the party’s leap to victory from third place in Dharapuram and second place in Madurantakam. The Dharapuram result is particularly damaging for Palaniswami. Despite resentment among AIADMK sympathisers over TVK candidate P Sathyabama’s defection, and the constituency having a significant gounder population, the party fared poorly. For AIADMK, it is a big setback to be pushed from the winner’s podium five months ago to third place. Reeling under factionalism, the party now has a bigger challenge to keep its remaining flock together and rebuild the organisation. And the AIADMK general secretary may find voices against his leadership rising.
A closer scrutiny, however, shows DMK this time polled around 30,000 fewer votes than it did in the two constituencies together last time.
SIR could have also had an impact on our votes,” said DMK spokesperson T K S Elangovan. DMK leaders attribute this to the fall in polling percentage. “The results show that our vote base is intact.