Blurb: The Congress MP questioned TVK’s choice of two former AIADMK MLAs as candidates for upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly bypolls.
Madurai
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram on Wednesday said he was not in favour of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam’s decision to field two former AIADMK legislators in the upcoming Madurantakam and Dharapuram Assembly bypolls in Tamil Nadu.
TVK has nominated K Maragatham Kumaravel from Madurantakam and P Sathyabama from Dharapuram. Both had won their respective constituencies as AIADMK candidates in the 2026 Assembly elections before resigning as legislators and joining the party led by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay.
Speaking to reporters in Madurai, Chidambaram said he believed TVK had considerable support among voters, but questioned the decision to renominate candidates who had recently switched parties.
He said TVK could instead have given its own longstanding workers or cadres an opportunity to contest the bypolls. Chidambaram added that, in his view, the eventual results would reflect the party’s broader popularity rather than necessarily the individual candidates.
The comments come as campaigning intensifies for the October 6 bypolls in Madurantakam and Dharapuram. The elections were necessitated after the resignation of the two AIADMK MLAs and their subsequent move to TVK.
Dharapuram has emerged as a multi-cornered contest involving TVK, DMK, AIADMK, CPI and Naam Tamilar Katchi. TVK has fielded Sathyabama, while the DMK, AIADMK, CPI and NTK have nominated S Suganya, K Bhanumathi, P Lakshmanan and M Karthika respectively. The bypolls will be held on October 6, with counting scheduled for October 9.
