Tamil Nadu byelections: why are only two constituencies going to polls instead of seven?

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The TVK’s candidates for the Madurantakam and Dharapuram bypolls, Maragatham Kumaravel and P. Sathyabama | Photo Credit: Special arrangement

The Election Commission of India (ECI) had notified byelections to only two constituencies – Dharapuram and Madurantakam – in Tamil Nadu, even as five other constituencies remain vacant.

C. Vijayabaskar (Viralimalai), M.R. Vijayabhaskar (Karur), Esakki Subaya (Ambasamudram), P. Sathyabama (Dharapuram), K. Maragatham Kumaravel (Madurantakam) and S. Jayakumar (Perundurai) had won the Assembly elections this year as AIADMK candidates. They, however, resigned as MLAs shortly thereafter, before joining the ruling TVK. Apart from these constituencies, Tiruchirappalli (East) was vacated by TVK chief and Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, who had won from Perambur Assembly seat as well.

Byelections are being held only in Madurantakam and Dharapuram, where K. Maragatham Kumaravel and P. Sathyabama, respectively, had been elected as AIADMK MLAs before resigning from the party and subsequently joining the TVK. The ruling party has fielded them as its candidates for the bypolls from the respective constituencies.

Madurantakam in northern Tamil Nadu and Dharapuram in the western region will go to the polls on October 6 to elect their representatives to the Assembly.

In all, seven constituencies are without MLAs. Byelections are required to be held within six months of a seat falling vacant, except under exceptional circumstances.

The legal bar on conducting a byelection to the Perundurai Assembly constituency had ended following the rejection of an election petition concerning the constituency on September 8, 2026, the EC submitted before the Madras High Court.

As far as the other four constituencies – Tiruchi East, Ambasamudram, Viralimalai and Karur – were concerned, the EC said byelections could not be notified until the election petitions, which included pleas to declare either the petitioners or other candidates as returned candidates, were decided.

Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, who vacated Tiruchi East and retained Perambur after winning from both seats in the Assembly elections, had contended that he resigned even before an election petition was filed by DMK candidate S. Inigo Irudayaraj. The EC, however, said the timing of the resignation was immaterial.

The Commission said it would make no difference whether an election petition was filed before or after the resignation, as the constituency could face an anomalous situation, in which it was represented by two individuals if another candidate was subsequently declared the returned candidate by the election tribunal, the High Court, after a byelection had been held.

The non-conduct of byelections to five Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu for an indefinite period would deprive several lakh people in those constituencies of democratically elected MLAs to represent their interests, causes, and grievances, the Chief Minister told the Madras High Court.

He made the submission in a counter-affidavit to a public interest litigation that had sought an interim stay, on July 10, 2026, on the conduct of byelections to Tiruchi East, Perundurai, Ambasamudram, Viralimalai, and Karur.

Claiming that the deferment of the byelections was “neither indefinite nor indiscriminate”, the EC said the bar would come to an end immediately after the election tribunal disposed of a plea, made along with an election petition, seeking to declare either the petitioner or another candidate as the returned candidate.

“This has already happened for the Perundurai constituency,” the Commission said. It also pointed out that Section 86(7) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, requires every election petition to be disposed of as expeditiously as possible, with an endeavour to conclude the trial within six months.

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