Why Left is fighting against CM Vijay despite backing his government
The Left parties are backing Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay to keep him in power, but are also taking on his TVK at the ballot box. If that sounds surprising, wait till you have read why Vijay's backers are going to be rivals in Tamil Nadu's October 6 bypolls in two Assembly seats.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) or the CPI (M), which extended outside support to the Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazagham (TVK) government after the Assembly election in May, are now preparing to fight the actor-turned-politician's candidates in the October 6 bypolls in Madurantakam (Chengalpattu district) and Dharapuram (Tiruppur district).
Their decision, according to the Left parties, is not an attempt to bring down the four-month-old government. Instead, it reflects a growing distance over candidate selection by the TVK, party-hopping, economic policies and the way Vijay's government has handled several people's issues since assuming power.
These differences had already surfaced on September 9, when the CPI and CPI(M) skipped the first alliance meeting hosted by the TVK. The meeting was attended by the Congress, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK).
That makes the two bypolls an unusual early test of the 52-year-old Chief Minister's political management.
He has to keep the Left's support in the Assembly while facing its campaign against his candidates on the ground. For the Left, meanwhile, the contest is an opportunity to prove that supporting a government does not mean surrendering its political identity β and to find out how much electoral weight it still carries when it fights without the protection of a larger alliance.
The decision of the Left to contest against the TVK in the upcoming by-elections might seem like an unusual move, but to understand why they are taking on the government they are backing, first we need to understand what kind of support they are providing in the Assembly. The Left's relationship with the TVK government began with the Assembly election verdict in May.
The CPI and CPI(M) extended outside support to Vijay to help him form the government. Their stated reasoning was that the electoral mandate had to be respected, while the alternative could have been governor's rule or what they feared of an indirect BJP-staged rule.
But the Left stopped short of joining Vijay's government. It did not take cabinet berths, and also did not become part of a formal TVK alliance. That arrangement allowed the parties to support the government while retaining their organisational and political independence.
CPI(M) state secretary P Shanmugam has maintained that this outside support will continue despite the decision to contest the bypolls against TVK candidates. For the Left, therefore, supporting the government and contesting elections against the ruling party are two separate political questions. For a voter, however, that distinction might not be so easy to understand.NOW, WHY COMMUNISTS ARE FIGHTING AGAINST VIJAY?
The immediate answer given by the communists is that the Left is not part of the three major political fronts in Tamil Nadu.
The CPI and CPI(M) are neither in the TVK-led alliance β which was recently named as the Secular Social Justice Victory Alliance (SSJVA), nor the DMK-led front, nor the AIADMK-BJP combine. Having chosen to remain outside these formations, the parties argue that contesting an election independently is necessary to maintain their identity.
The CPI will contest Dharapuram, while the CPI(M) will field its candidate in Madurantakam. CPI state secretary M Veerapandian on Sunday (September 13) said the Left wants to take its political ideas directly to voters rather than allow them to be subsumed into alliance arithmetic.
This is particularly important for a Left that has spent years fighting elections as part of broader alliances, where its vote share has often contributed to a larger electoral bloc rather than being tested independently.
The bypolls, then, are as much about political space as they are about winning two seats.ISSUES THAT THE LEFT HAS WITH THE VIJAY-LED TVK GOVERNMENT IN TAMIL NADU
There is, however, a more immediate source of friction between the Left and TVK.
The TVK has retained K Maragatham Kumaravel in Madurantakam and P Sathyabama in Dharapuram. Both had won their seats on AIADMK tickets in the Assembly election before resigning and joining Vijay's party soon after.
The Left has strongly opposed the turncoat. CPI(M) state secretary P Shanmugam has criticised the legislators for resigning within a short period of their election victory and joining another party. He has also said the possibility of horse-trading cannot be ruled out.
For the Left, this is not simply a question of political strategy. It is about the kind of politics it wants to represent. The parties have argued that voters should not be misled by elected representatives changing political sides soon after receiving a mandate on another party's ticket.
That makes the bypoll campaign an opportunity for the Left to attack TVK without necessarily withdrawing its support from the government itself.
The "horse-trading" is not the only problem for the Left with TVK. The issues go beyond the two candidates of AIADMK joining and contesting for the TVK ticket on October 6.
Over the past few months, CPI and CPI(M) leaders have criticised the CM Vijay government on several issues, including price rises, power cuts, sanitation workers' protests and farmers' demands.
The parties have also raised objections to what they called the government's "liberal and neoliberal" economic policies and its emphasis on attracting foreign investment.
The functioning of the Tamil Nadu Assembly has emerged as another point of criticism.
CPI(M)'s Shanmugam has argued that the Assembly should be a serious forum for raising people's issues rather than becoming what he described as a "lavani kacheri" β a theatrical political exchange.
The bypolls, therefore, give the Left a platform to convert these criticisms into an electoral campaign. It can tell voters that supporting the continuation of the Vijay government does not mean giving the government a free pass.THE LEFT HAS TURNED THE TWO BYPOLLS INTO A FIVE CORNERED BATTLE
The Left's decision has also made the upcoming electoral contest more crowded. The TVK-led alliance, DMK, AIADMK-BJP combine, Left and Naam Tamilar Katchi are now set to compete in the two constituencies.
The split could make the arithmetic particularly interesting because even a relatively small vote share could influence the final result in a closely fought contest.
For TVK, the challenge is to ensure that the Left's presence does not eat into the support base that helped the party's candidates win these constituencies. For the DMK and AIADMK-BJP combine, the additional contestant creates another variable in an already fragmented contest.
For Chief Minister Vijay, the bypolls offer an early test of how effectively he can manage a government that enjoys outside support from parties that are willing to oppose him at the ballot box.
The Left might insist there is no contradiction. But come October 6, the voters of Madurantakam and Dharapuram will be the ones deciding whether that political distinction holds up beyond the party room.- EndsPublished By: Avinash KateelPublished On: Sep 15, 2026 13:36 IST
