Campaigning for by-elections in 4 states, including Tamil Nadu, ends: Vijay holds 40 km roadshow in Dharapuram; Voting will be held on October 6

Campaigning for the bypolls to the Madurantakam and Dharapuram assembly seats in Tamil Nadu ended on Sunday. Both the seats are reserved for the SC and there is a five-party contest. Ruling TVK founder and Chief Minister Joseph C. Vijay held a roadshow in Dharapuram that lasted for more than three hours. He covered a distance of about 40 km and made short meetings with the people. As per the Election Commission rules, there is a ban on any kind of campaigning from 6 pm on Sunday till the end of polling. Polling will be held in both the seats on Tuesday. The counting of votes will be held on October 9. The bypolls have been dominated by the ruling parties. The reason for the bypolls is the resignation of the then MLAs of the AIADMK. K. from Maduranthakam. Maragatham Kumaravel from and P. from Dharapuram. Sathyabama resigned and joined the party led by Vijay. Vijay has fielded the same women leaders again from both the seats. Both the seats are considered to be strongholds of the AIADMK. Vijay has once again made this by-election a fight of the DMK against the TVK. The eyes of political experts are on whether the DMK or the Edappadi K. Palaniswami-led AIADMK can deliver a surprise result. The DMK has fielded former MLA I. Paranthaman from Maduranthakam and Suganya from Dharapuram. The NTK, led by actor-politician Siman, has also fielded candidates in both the seats. Candidates from the allied parties are in the fray against each other in the by-elections. The by-elections in the state have generally been dominated by the ruling parties. Both seats are important for TVK TVK wants to win both seats. This will increase the party's strength in the 234-member Assembly to 109. This will be just nine seats short of this simple majority. The Congress, VCK and IUML, are part of the TVK-led coalition government. The two Left parties, the CPI(M) and the CPI, have two MLAs each. Both these parties are giving significant support to the Vijay government from outside. Interestingly, both the Left parties have fielded one candidate each from Madurantakam and Dharapuram. He has also accused TVK and other parties of distributing money. Vijay's roadshow in Dharapuram This is the first election test of Chief Minister Vijay after winning the April 2026 assembly elections. On Sunday, he held a roadshow in Dharapuram in Tiruppur district of western Tamil Nadu. Dharapuram is part of the western region, which is known for its textile industry. Vijay's roadshow took place two days after his similar event held in Madurantakam. During the roadshow in Madurantakam, Vijay stopped for tea and met people. He tried to drive a tractor and also interacted with the public. In Sunday's roadshow, Vijay had a brief interaction with the people. He also had darshan at the temple. Several leaders of TVK had been camping in both the assembly constituencies for the last few days. They were continuously campaigning.