Bypolls to 4 MLA seats in Tamil Nadu on May 19

CHENNAI : The Election Commission on Tuesday announced that bypolls in remaining four vacant Assembly segments would be held on May 19 and results would be announced on May 23, along with Lok Sabha election results. The poll panel had already announced bypolls to 18 vacant Assembly seats.  The four seats that will go to polls on May 19 are: Sulur, Aravakurichi, Thirupparankundram and Ottapidaram.

While the AIADMK needs to win just four seats to retain power in the State, DMK has the herculean task of winning 21 of the 22 seats if it wants to form the government. In case neither party gets the required numbers, fresh elections will have to be held for the State Assembly.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

Earlier, EC did not announce the polling dates for three of these four segments citing pending litigations. The fourth seat, Sulur, fell vacant after MLA R Kanagaraj died on March 21, reducing the ruling party’s strength to 114 members in a House of 212 MLAs. Several parties, which have been criticising the poll panel for delaying the bypolls, have welcomed the decision to conduct elections to all seats. 

AIADMK in need to win at least 4 seats

With 22 seats going for bypolls now, the ruling AIADMK will have to win at least four seats to get a majority of 118 in a house of 234.Another concern for the ruling party would be the volatile stance of three of its MLAs who were openly supporting the rebel leader, TTV Dhinakaran. Also, Thamimun Ansari, who won on an AIADMK ticket in Nagapattinam, has also made his opposition to the party clear, after it had allied with the BJP for the Lok Sabha election. To negate any impact likely to be caused by these rebel MLAs, the ruling party should aim to win a few more seats to maintain the stability of its regime.

On the other hand, the DMK-led alliance currently has a strength of 97 MLAs in the assembly. If the party manages to accomplish the Himalayan task of winning 21 of the 22 constituencies, the alliance would obtain a majority in the house, by raising its tally to 118.

The EC has announced that filing of nominations for the four bypolls, will begin on April 22 and the last date for withdrawal of nominations is April 29. Scrutiny of nominations will take place on April 30 and May 2 will be the last date for withdrawal of nominations.Meanwhile, leaders of opposition parties welcomed the announcement of by-elections to the four Assembly constituencies but criticised the Election Commission for not holding them on April 18 along with other constituencies.