Voting for the high-stakes Erode East bypoll in Tamil Nadu will be held on Monday amid tight security, officials said on Sunday.
Bypoll in the seat was necessitated following the death of sitting Congress MLA E Thirumahan Everaa on January 4. The results will be declared on March 2.
More than 220,000 voters are eligible to cast their votes and a total of 238 polling stations have been set up.
“We have created multiple layers of checks and balances to prevent bogus voting,” Erode district collector H Krishnanunni said.
“We have made a zone-wise split and there is a security unit for each zone for the safekeeping of the EVMs. Besides that, security arrangements have been made for each polling booth,” he added.
The bypoll to the Erode East assembly seat holds significance for both the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) alliance and the opposition All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).
While for the chief minister MK Stalin-led DMK, a win in the bypoll will reaffirm its popularity among voters even after staying in power for close to 20 months, a positive outcome will hold more significance for the AIADMK and particularly Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS), who will then be able to tighten his grip over the party, projecting himself as its tallest leader and silence his friend-turned-foe O Panneerselvam (OPS).
The first bypoll in the state after the DMK assumed power in 2021 would see a direct fight between EVKS Elangovan, Everaa’s father and Congress candidate fielded on behalf of the DMK alliance, and AIADMK’s former legislator, K S Thennarasu.
Though there were talks that Everaa’s younger brother could be made a candidate, but after some opposition to his name, Stalin announced Elangovan as the candidate for the bypoll.
Thenarasu who had won this seat in the 2016 assembly elections.
The state’s third largest party, Naam Tamilar Katchi, has fielded Menkaka Navaneethan – the only female candidate in the poll. Actor-turned political Vijayankanth’s Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam’s (DMDK) has fielded S Anand.
A total of 77 candidates are in the fray.
Campaigning for the election was marred by violence and allegations of cash distribution to lure voters, locking up of voters and also assault on media persons. So far, 796 such complaints have been registered, the collector said.
He said that additional security has been provided in 32 vulnerable polling booths and other vulnerable areas. A three-layer security is also in place for the counting day, he added.
On the complaints being registered, Krishnanunni said: “We have acted on a preventive basis and also based on complaints that we have received.”
Chief minister Stalin and Palaniswami campaigned for their candidates.
On Saturday, Stalin held a mega rally in Erode in favour of Elangovan and said the bye-election will check the weightage of the Dravidian Model government.
“You all shouldn’t forget that this is not only a bypoll, this is an election to check the weightage of the Dravidian Model government. A secular progressive alliance is not an alliance for election. This is an alliance for this nation’s goodwill and ideology. To save our language, race and state, this alliance has been formed,” he said.
Calling out the importance of Erode for DMK, Stalin said, “This is the place EVR Periyar was born. Now, bypoll has come in Periyar’s native soil and I have come here to seek votes for Elangovan.”
He also claimed that his government has fulfilled most of the promises made in the run up to the 2021 assembly elections and that it will make an announcement on one of the remaining promises, i.e., providing a monthly allowance of ₹1,000 to women heads of families, during the budget session in March.
Stalin’s remarks on the financial aid triggered a row after the opposition accused the DMK of violating the model code of conduct.
Law minister S Raghupathy, however, said the scheme was announced earlier. “If they file a complaint, we will see it through. We had already announced this scheme,” he told reporters.
The ruling alliance has the support of Left parties such as CPI and CPI(M) and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi. Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam also rallied for Elangovan.
EPS, who has been camping in Erode since early February, accused the state government of not fulfilling their election promises such as abolishing the Nation Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
In the run-up to the poll, EPS’s faction got a shot in the arm after the Supreme Court affirmed the Madras high court division bench decision that restored EPS as AIADMK’s single leader. The court rejected O Panneerselvam’s plea allowing EPS to continue as the party’s interim general secretary.
