DMK Chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin distributes sweets to party workers as party candidate leads during counting of Vikravandi Assembly by-poll votes, in Chennai on Saturday, July 13, 2024.
Credit: PTI Photo
Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Saturday won the bypolls in the Vikravandi assembly constituency defeating the Opposition PMK candidate by a wide margin of 67,000 votes. Chief Minister M K Stalin said the results show that people have clearly demonstrated that the DMK is needed for the growth and development of Tamil Nadu and its people.
The bypoll was necessitated after Vikravandi MLA Pugalendhi died of illness in April this year during the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls. DMK’s Anniyur Siva polled 1,24,053 votes and won the bypoll by a margin of 67,757 votes, while PMK’s C Anbumani got 56,296 votes, and NTK’s Abhinaya 10,602 votes.
The bypoll results were keenly awaited in political circles with the AIADMK boycotting the elections and the fight narrowing down to DMK and PMK, an ally of the BJP. Vikravandi is in northern Tamil Nadu dominated by Vanniyars, a community which is the core vote bank of the PMK, which make up about about five to six per cent of the pool.
While the DMK’s victory by a wide margin was expected, all eyes were on the number of votes that the PMK would poll and where the AIADMK votes would go. BJP chief K Annamalai said the party accepts the Vikravandi results but maintained that bypoll results won’t reflect in the 2026 assembly polls, which he predicted the ruling DMK will lose.
The victory is yet another shot in the arm for the DMK, which has been on a winning spree since 2019, and is good optics ahead of the assembly polls in 2026 which is likely to be a multi-cornered contest with actor Vijay’s Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) likely to make its electoral debut.
“The victory of the I.N.D.I.A. alliance in Tamil Nadu is continuing since 2019. I thank the people of Vikravandi for handing out a record victory for our candidate,” Stalin said in a statement, adding that the AIADMK opted out of the contest due to the fear of losing and the BJP fielded its ally PMK, which had in the past decided to boycott bypolls.