Chennai: With the Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK) alone nominating a candidate, M K Seethalakshmi, for the Erode East by-election on February 5 to take on the ruling DMK that had named V C Chandrakumar, a local leader who had won the seat in 2011 as a candidate of the DMDK, the hustings have lost their lustre though it could be the last by-election for the present House, setting the trend for the 2026 Assembly polls.
For, the DMK-led alliance had won the seat in the Assembly polls in 2021 and also in the by-election in 2023 when E V K S Elangovan triumphed over his AIADMK rival and the NTK candidates had lost their deposits. Now that the AIADMK had decided to boycott the by-election, it looks like a cakewalk for the DMK that had taken the seat from its ally, the Congress.
But the NTK announced its candidate on Pongal Day and the Congress party declared war against the party’s chief coordinator Seeman for his repeated denigration of Periyar E V Ramasamy through his statements. Periyar, who hailed from Erode, was the granduncle of Elangovan, whose death on December 14, 2024, caused the present polls.
The earlier winner of the seat in 2021, Thirumagan Evera, was the great grandnephew of Periyar. In such a constituency, the chances of people voting for the candidate nominated by Seeman, who had been spewing hatred against Periyar, is rather bleak. Besides, the local Congress party threatened to prevent Seeman from campaigning in the constituency.
However, the NTK candidate will be able to garner some votes, putting up a fight with the DMK’s nominee, if the opposition parties that are boycotting the by-election throw their weight behind Seethalakshmi, who had contested a few elections in the past from the Erode Lok Sabha and Tiruppur Lok Sabha constituencies as NTK nominee.
The nascent Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam of actor Vijay, which will launch itself on the electoral scene only in 2026, however, may not be able to openly support Seeman’s party as the leader had spoken ill of Periyar, who is a declared guiding light of the TVK. Also Seeman had hit out at Vijay himself vehemently.
While the BJP might not find it difficult to back someone who had derogated Periyar, for the AIADMK it could not be that easy. So the NTK that had not won a single election ever since it started contesting polls in 2016 in both Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will hardly be a match to the ruling DMK in the February 5 polls.
Yet, the NTK cadre and leaders have already started their campaign in Erode East as this is the first election they would be contesting after the party recently won the State Party status, though the symbol is now known. The party lost its earlier symbol – a farmer with a couple of sugarcane – in the last elections as the NTK missed the last day for renewing it and then contested with the ‘microphone’ symbol.
For the NTK the pressure on getting votes has increased as it is the only registered party in the fray and could not afford to finish behind any of the nine independent candidates who had already filed their papers. Both the DMK and NTK nominees are filing their papers on Friday, January 17.
