By-elections in Tamil Nadu since the 1960s have been fought fiercely, more so as a prestigious show of strength, by both the ruling party and the main Opposition party and watched closely. The trend continued despite the emergence of many other parties and their participation in by-polls. At present, however, most of these parties seem to prefer watching the fight from outside the ring.
As the State braces itself for the November 19 elections to the Aravakurichi and Thanjavur constituencies and by-election to the Thiruparankundram seat, quite a few parties, including the four-party People’s Welfare Front, have announced a boycott.
PWF convener and MDMK leader Vaiko justifies the boycott. “Both the DMK and the AIADMK have made by-elections a mockery of democracy. If the DMK is responsible for introducing what is known as ‘Thirumangalam formula’ for winning by-elections, the AIADMK has to its credit the ‘Srirangam formula’,” he alleges. “Every single vote is bought with money. Other political parties, with fewer resources in terms of money and manpower, have been forced to stay away,” he claims.
But it was by-election that heralded the emergence of Opposition parties in a big way in State politics. In 1963, exactly four years before it was elected to power, the DMK won the Tiruvannamalai by-election. The victory of DMK candidate P.U. Shanmugam, who went on to become a Minister in the DMK government and later in MGR’s Cabinet, exposed the chinks in the armour of the Congress and its government led by Chief Minister M. Kamaraj.
Ten years later, the outcome of the by-election to the Dindigul Lok Sabha constituency announced the arrival of MGR and his fledgling AIADMK with a bang. In a four-cornered contest, AIADMK candidate Maya Thevar defeated DMK’s Pon. Muthuramalingam, Congress (I) candidate Seemaisamy and Congress (Syndicate) candidate N.S.V. Chitthan.
In 1974, the AIADMK once again proved its potential when its candidate C. Aranganayagam wrested the Coimbatore (West) Assembly constituency from the then ruling DMK.
Even after MGR proved to be an invincible Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the DMK was able to give a tough fight in the 1983 Tiruchendur by-election, a tough terrain for the then ruling party, which could scrape through only by a thin margin of over 1,700 votes. The very next year, the DMK managed to win two (Anna Nagar and Mayiladuthurai) of the four by-elections in the State defeating the AIADMK-Congress combine.
Again in 1991, the DMK managed to win the by-election to the Harbour seat and the deferred election to the Egmore constituencie, though the AIAMDK-Congress swept the general elections earlier that year. Thereafter, whichever party was in power managed to win the bypolls.
Stooping to conquer
The degeneration set in much later when winning a by-election became a prestige issue for the ruling party and it prepared to stoop to any level to conquer.
“Tamils have fallen prey to the lure of money and today only proxy democracy exists in elections. They refuse to take pride in the fact that even a millennium ago they had a democratic tradition of electing candidates through Kuda Olai Murai . Both political parties and voters are responsible for this trend,” said historian of the Dravidian movement K. Thirunavukkarasu.
Commenting on the November 19 polls, Mr Vaiko says, “It is a shame that the DMK and the AIADMK have again fielded some candidates, who threw to winds all decency in politics and splurged money in the May 2016 general election due to which for the first time polls were cancelled in the Aravakurichi and Thanjavur constituencies.” He claims that the PWF decided to boycott the polls as it did not foresee fair play.
