- 11 hours ago
Counting of votes is underway for the high-stakes by-elections in Dharapuram and Madurantakam assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu. The ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) has established comfortable leads in both segments as rounds progress. In Madurantakam, TVK candidate Maragadam Kumaravel established a steady margin over the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) nominee, while in Dharapuram, TVK candidate C. Sathyabama moved ahead of DMK contender Suganya. Both seats were vacated after previously elected AIADMK legislators switched allegiance to TVK, necessitating the by-polls. Ground reports highlighted voter concerns over agricultural challenges, including the Uppar Dam and Nellathangal Dam issues in Dharapuram, alongside a noticeable dip in voter turnout compared to earlier assembly polls. Celebrations began outside the TVK party headquarters as early vote tallies reflected significant margins over rivals DMK and AIADMK.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:05Hello and welcome to India Today's SOSA. This is a very special day considering
00:08Tamil Nadu is going to face the battle about the bipolar scouting has begun and
00:12it's almost halfway done and quite a lot of interesting things have happened
00:16for today. I'll be joined by Appurva Jaij Santan and Anaka Keshav. Let's go to the show.
00:40And we have the latest numbers for the by-polls that is at Dharapuram and Madara Andhagam.
00:45Interestingly quite a lot of things have occurred in both by-polls apparently. On Madara Andhagam
00:50the lead has always been for Maragadam and Akumravel, the person who won already from
00:55AIA DMK ticket but resigned, joined TVK and she is once again back in the war.
01:01But same thing with the Dharapuram candidate as well, Satya Bama but interestingly when it
01:06comes to the Madara Andhagam the numbers are very clear like unlike what we see in Dharapuram
01:12and the numbers for Dharapuram right now is 45,336 that is for Satya Bama, 36,110 that is for
01:20the DMK candidate over there. But when it comes to Madara Andhagam, Madara Andhagam is 38,080 a very
01:27very good leading number considered to the DMK over there which is like quite a kind of like a
01:33comfortable lead over there. This seems to be the recent numbers from the both the constituencies
01:37and this is this is kind of like yes it is a by-poll but for the state of Tamil
01:42Nadu it is quite
01:43interesting to see what's happening over here. I'm joined by Appurva Jaij Santan. What is happening on the
01:48ground over there? Appurva, what is happening in TVK office right now?
01:55Well in fact we are here from Oth at the Tamaragavitchi Karagam's Panayur offices as well and
02:00as you can see a lot of caddles have gathered here since morning ever since the numbers have
02:04been trickling in for Dharapuram as well wherein the TVK is now leading second DMK in place right now.
02:12We've seen that there have been a lot of firecrackers that have been burst out here,
02:16celebrations that have been going on, whistles that have been blown here as part of you know
02:21the TVK celebratory moment as well but let's you know we'll have to hold back and wait for the
02:26numbers to come out for the final results because we still have a couple of more rounds
02:30to go forth for both the Dharapuram as well as the Madhuran Takam constituency but interestingly
02:36enough right now the TVK is leading in both these constituencies. Remember this by-polls came
02:42just after the TVK had come to power after the AI-ADMK MLAs who had won from these you know
02:49particular constituencies Dharapuram as well as Madhuran Takam they had resigned from AI-ADMK and
02:54jumped ship to the TVK deflecting to the TVK as well which is what led to the by-elections in
02:59the
02:59first place. So you know several people the public who had voted in Dharapuram and Madhuran Takam they
03:05did have a lot of questions that were raised a lot of anger a lot of betrayal in a sense
03:09that they had
03:12we were on the ground and we were questioning them if this by-poll what is going to be the
03:16results and the outcome that they want in this by-poll as well. Several demands that have been
03:20also made because when it comes to Dharapuram there have been demands by the farmers there predominantly
03:25in agrarian Konganada belt that you can see in Dharapuram definitely there there has risen a lot of
03:32questions as well especially given that at the time of the Dharapuram by-elections counting voting that
03:38was taking place we saw this last minute viral video that had come out wherein allegedly the TVK
03:44candidate there Satya Bama was seen talking about spending over rupees 31 crores there you know
03:50that particular video that had come out this on one side on the other side you also saw when it
03:55comes
03:55to Madhuran Takam there you saw several people questioning what will be the belt because Madhuran Takam
04:00is a mixed bag you have the Gen Z voters who will obviously you know be going ahead for
04:06Anaga Kesha who's on the ground as well Anaga you went to the particular location called Madhuran Takam you
04:11actually saw the people over there what is the present situation over there what are the numbers
04:16and how is the trend now?
04:22Well in fact Pramod the at the moment the but you know with regards to trend what I'm picking up
04:27is
04:27that TVK is leading by a margin of 6000 votes I'm just getting you the exact numbers but you know
04:34what's interesting to note particularly this time Pramod is regarding the voter turnout in the 2026
04:40assembly elections that happened in the month of May what we noticed is that the drop in voter turnout is
04:47nearly seven percent this time for by polls the voter turnout was 86.26 percentage versus 93.22
04:55percentage during the assembly election so therefore in Madhuran Takam like you asked the the drop is
05:01nearly seven percent uh yeah and you know in terms of numbers at the moment what we are reporting is
05:06that
05:07the TVK is leading by a margin of 8,792 votes followed by DMK's Parandaman he has polled around
05:15uh 18,668 votes so in Madhuran Takam it is TVK followed by DMK and then AIA DMK uh at
05:23the moment
05:24in Madhuran Takam seven rounds overall have been completed there are 21 rounds overall so we need to
05:29wait and watch uh for the final results but at the moment as we stand in Madhuran Takam and in
05:35Darapuram uh TVK is the leading party in Darapuram surprisingly TVK has a higher edge so therefore uh it's
05:42quite interesting how this election has really turned out to be given the fact that there is a
05:47dip in total voter turnout in Madhuran Takam a dip of nearly seven percent and in Darapuram a dip of
05:52nearly nine percent so it's quite interesting how this by poll has differed when we compare it with
05:57the 2026 may elections right thank you for those updates as well i request to stay back let's see
06:07into what exactly is happening in Madhuran Takam the big x factor when it comes to Madhuran Takam
06:12constituency it is 80 kilometers away from Chennai but quite a big constituency and the important aspect
06:18over here that's that is a kind of an agrarian belt and also quite a lot of farmers and a
06:23lot of people
06:24who depend on land and water for their livelihood in fact the important aspect over there it is
06:29Maragadam Kumarabeel the candidate who stood from AIDMK she won but stating that AIDMK and DMK
06:37were trying to come together to defeat TVK she resigned along with three others and immediately
06:42joined TVK interestingly even though TVK had a candidate over there who've been told that like
06:48in a few thousand votes that person could not win over there TVK decided to give the seat to
06:52Maragadam Kumarabeel so it was a place where AIDMK won but the candidate resigned and she joined TVK
07:00to contest from there another aspect that is a reserved constituency considering the one-year belt
07:05over there interestingly PMK that seems to be a stronghold that have a stronghold over the one-year
07:11they decided not to support any party for this election they were they are with NDA they were in
07:17alliance with AIDMK but they decided not to support any party over there this gives an edge to TVK and
07:24the another important aspect is about the VCK which also has a stronghold over there considering it's a
07:31reserved constituency these two factors seem to be playing a very important role when it comes to the
07:36victory of Tamil Nadu Vichikaragam over there and that is of Maragadam Kumarabeel it looks like there is a kind
07:42of
07:42difference of close to 13,000 votes between Maragadam Kumarabeel 38,000 plus and DMK's candidate
07:50Aiparandaman who comes at 25,480 plus votes for now and Aiparandaman very clearly said that DMK still
07:56has a stronghold over there we still have quite a lot of rounds to go but it looks like Maragadam
08:00Kumarabeel
08:01definitely has an edge when it comes to Madharaandagam here's what let's see uh what what like uh the
08:08candidate said over there the counting starts at 8 30 a.m so for the first round 14 polling booths
08:16are taken for the counting process so during the 14 polling booth counting process one of the polling
08:23booth number yeah the polling booths number 11 the EVM that is control unit EVM unit level
08:32yeah and the unit when the it is not functioning 14 polling booths has to be counted completely as per
08:40ECA norms ECA norms it is very clearly mentioned that handbook for counting agent it is very clear that
08:51on the handbook for counting agent counting of votes recorded in EDM
09:01we can clearly say that this high tension and drama when it comes to Madharaandagam and Darapuram on
09:07Darapuram we saw that AIDMK was having a hedge for almost half an hour over there maybe probably 400
09:12votes or something but in Madharaandagam one of the independent candidates whom you saw right now
09:17he apparently protested claiming there were issues with the counting so this actually depicts these two
09:23are bipoles these two constituencies only faced bipoles not even the proper election but even after that
09:29this seems to be a very important by Paul when it comes to the state of tamirnadu considering for
09:34tamiragavitchi karagam which has a full like the cleared 150 plus days of governance over here this
09:41is a test to see if the chief minister's vijay's magic is still on the ground and that's why he
09:47went to
09:47each constraint twice once he spoke in the constituency and the second time that entire day was dedicated for
09:54roadshow be it Madharaandagam or be it Darapuram then comes DMK DMK's leader MK Stalin calls CM Vijay's
10:03TV government as a corporate mafia and he says that the DMK did not worry about Vijay earlier it only
10:10worried about the ideological enemies and that is why they lost so DMK wants to prove that DMK is a
10:17main
10:17force when it comes to Tamil Nadu politics and then we have AIADMK unfortunately for AIADMK both candidates
10:25one from AIADMK then claiming that AIADMK wants to go with DMK to defeat TVK and form government
10:34four MLAs resigned on the same day it was like a dramatic situation considering they resigned in
10:40assembly they gave the letters to the speaker on the ground floor then went to the first floor met with
10:45PWD minister Adhava Arjuna and they immediately joined the TVK over there and now they've been
10:51given seats so it's a kind of like a major ego clash when it comes to AIADMK where EPS wants
10:57to prove
10:58that he is the general secretary and he still controls and he will not leave his these two
11:03forts especially Darapuram to any other party this is the reason why this bipolar matters to Tamil Nadu
11:11Anaga Keshav is one second live with us Anaga specifically when it comes to Madhuraanthakam what
11:17are the factors that is going to support TVK and what are the factors can play towards the second be
11:23it
11:23DMK or AIADMK over there
11:29uh for TVK it's only the Vijay factor right even when i was in Madhuraanthakam like i was mentioning before
11:34i was there to speak to some people but it turns out half the village was gone to see Vijay
11:40so that's
11:41the kind of frenzy that Vijay still draws so for sure in Madhuraanthakam the fact that they are leading
11:46by a margin of over 6000 votes is because of Vijay the fact that uh the candidate was changed the
11:51candidate was pushed from AIADMK then fielded here all that doesn't matter for people it's just Vijay
11:57uh and it turns out according to early trends uh people have sort of been accepting of Vijay's
12:02governance in the last four months and this applies to both Madhuraanthakam and Dharapuram
12:06specifically in Madhuraanthakam like you asked uh last time TVK lost out by a margin of just
12:122000 votes right and this time uh it's remained to be seen whether TVK will be able to push forward
12:18and get those 2000 votes that they had lost last time so at the early trends at the outset they
12:24are
12:24leading by a margin of 6000 votes but what works out in favor of the AIADMK and the DMK
12:30is specifically for the AIADMK is the magical two-leaf symbol even today there are voters who would vote
12:36for AIADMK solely because of that symbol so that remains AIADMK's biggest strength and for the DMK
12:43the fact that um they are sort of banking on the anti-incumbency factor in the last four months if
12:49there are people who are sort of disappointed with the TVK because there are so many election promises
12:54yet to be fulfilled the fact that Maghile Urumei Togai is yet to be given to women so will all
12:59those factors really play out in the minds of people and is that something that the DMK is trying
13:04to bank on the fact that DMK has called the TVK government as a U-turn government calling the TVK
13:09government as a stooge of the BJP will it really work out in the favor of DMK is yet to
13:15be seen but
13:16for individually for all these parties this is the main strength and weakness like we pointed out but
13:21at the moment TVK has edge in both constituencies
13:27thank you for the updates and now going to Dharapuram which is networked to Coimbatore a belt
13:32considered to be a Congo belt and also a stronghold of AIADMK in fact we also saw quite a lot
13:38of drama
13:38during the campaigning over there one of the AIADMK district secretaries had whatever was detained by the police and entire
13:46of AIADMK you know caterers joint came over there apparently they also raised the derogatory state
13:51comments against the chief minister but now in the morning for almost 30 minutes there was a lead
13:57for AIADMK over TVK but then the slowly that kind of desperation changed and now TVK is having a lead
14:04of close to 3000 to 4000 votes over the AIADMK candidate and then we have DMK as well
14:10Apoorva Jayaj Santran went to Dharapuram spoke to the people over there Apoorva what is the present
14:16situation over there what are the factors if it will favor TVK DMK or AIADMK in Dharapuram
14:27well that's right in fact if you do see uh when it comes to Dharapuram there's a lot of factors
14:32involved especially this by elections i have already told you the number one factor being that
14:37uh you know the deflection from the AIADMK to TVK that did not sit right uh with the voters of
14:44Dharapuram even when uh in Madhra Antingam we did see a lot of crowds that were there in the villages
14:50who were missing from the villages because they went to go and see uh you know the TVK chief
14:55Vijay meanwhile in Dharapuram most of the public who had come to see Vijay were people who had come in
15:01allegedly from other constituencies public in Dharapuram even when the chief minister and TVK
15:07chief Vijay was speaking uh on the ground on the dais as well we saw several public who were just
15:12uh
15:13you know standing outside and most of them who were just waiting to catch a glimpse of Vijay on
15:17one side when we were questioning them the more important factor that they were all questioning was
15:22why is it that this by elections had come up so urgently and what was the need to even bring
15:27up this by elections just four months after a new party has been elected to power and one of the
15:33more
15:33important things the public of Dharapuram were questioning was for their demands two major issues
15:39there given that Dharapuram is a major agrarian build in the Konganada side of Tamil Nadu we are
15:45seeing that there are several critical issues that uh still remain uh affecting the public of Dharapuram
15:52one of them pertaining to the Uppar Dam and the PAP issue there on one side you have the Uppar
15:57Dam
15:58where in the public who are related to that uh you have a lot of people questioning why is that
16:03an
16:03unfulfillment when it comes to the Uppar Dam PAP issue on the other side there's a Nala Thangal Dam
16:08that had already built been built as a part of the Karnataka you know the Karnataka Tamil Nadu and Kerala
16:15this uh waterways the dam had been uh built but particularly the Nala Thangal Dam for the last over
16:2119 months had there have seen severe drought in that region which has affected the farmers in
16:27the region so every day every once a week twice a week they had to shell out money to have
16:32tankers
16:33come to their villages to drop water every every week they had to shell out more than 5000 rupees
16:38which was not flexible for the farmers in the region this is not just for agriculture but this was also
16:43when it comes to their daily drinking water needs as well so a lot more that you can see the
16:48were the
16:48pressing issues that were there in darapurum and most of them incidentally when satyabama the now
16:54tvk candidate had gone ahead and also campaigned in darapurum we also saw several public there who
17:00were going ahead and protesting against satyabama asking her to leave from their premises and we
17:06also saw tensions even raising when even of the other candidates we from dmk dmks candidate suganya
17:12ntks candidate kartika or even aiadm case candidate banumati all of them going the promises that they
17:19made were hefty when it came to speeches in the campaigns that they made out but the public of
17:24darapurum just wanted one thing which was what what will happen to the promises will there be finally
17:29a solution that will be given for the request at their place they're not asking about the vijay
17:35factor they're not bothered about uh you know which candidate will come in and everything else the only
17:40uh thing that their mind is set on is that there must be a party that they can elect and
17:45a
17:45representative who will take their matters their troubles to you know tamilnadu secretary their
17:52troubles to the assembly and ensure that be the state or the center they will go ahead and resolve
17:57their issues particularly as you know pertaining to the agrarian families that are living there in that
18:03region to promote i understand one one thing we can actually find out is like right now we see
18:11on a close to 9 000 votes difference between satyabama and suganya we understand there are a couple of
18:16more rounds to go but the important aspect over here is like it seems that there was a close to
18:209.5 percent of vote drop and still satyabama has a very good lead over here so we can clearly
18:27say
18:28that the chief minister's campaign had worked there right well that's right in fact yes the campaign
18:38for the tamirnadu chief minister and tvk chief vijay had taken place in dharapuram and in fact in a very
18:45huge manner and in fact it was this particular speech that the chief minister had made that drew
18:50a lot of criticism especially from the dmk the ai admk uh because in this uh you know even as
18:56the chief
18:57minister was going ahead and attacking the dmk left right and center we did see uh you know a
19:02fapa moment of the chief minister and tvk chief vijay wherein he had uh you know mistakenly said
19:07that tvk is a branch of the bjp and this particular line that the chief minister and tvk chief vijay
19:13had
19:14said had not gone well with the tvk on one side but it had become a bonanza for the dmk
19:20and the ai admk
19:21because they picked it picked this up in a massive way in that campaigning and said look the truth has
19:26finally come out the tvk chief and the tamirnadu chief minister vijay none other than himself
19:31accepting that tvk is a branch of bjp so this particular uh you know uh speech unfortunately
19:36became the highlight of the chief minister and tamirnadu's tv tamiragavitri kargam chief
19:42vijay's campaign in dharapuram as well but we did see a massive uh you know number of people who had
19:48come
19:48there yet again there were police persons who were deployed who were instructing uh you know the young
19:53mothers the young children who were there in the scorching heat to go ahead and take shelter they
19:57said you know go to places waters that water bottles that were provided as well the the centric theme
20:04that the tvk wanted to go ahead and convey was that yes we will be winning both the by elections
20:09beat at
20:10madranthakam or dharapuram and remember promo this is going to be interesting because they will have to
20:15win this because they need the numbers in hand hundred and six hundred and seven seats that they have
20:19right now in the tamirnadu assembly they need those numbers outside of the alliance to show
20:24that yes they are a single majority party who are able to bring in what they say which is they
20:29want
20:30to bring matram a change for the public of tamirnadu certainly apu it looks like we still have a couple
20:34of more rounds to go but it looks like tvk is having a comfortable lead when it comes to madran
20:38and dharapuram quite a lot of people questioned if aidmk is going to have the lead but we see
20:42that aidmk tvk is also actually getting a decent lead over there these are the important updates from the
20:48state of tamirnadu's bypass madurandakam and dharapuram thank you for watching so south keep
20:54watching india today let's go back to the show and to the studio for recent updates