A joint rally without the star: TVK's allies campaign for a CM who would not share their stage

Madurantakam, Oct 3 — Three days before Tamil Nadu's first by-elections under his government, Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay's allies took to a stage he refused to share. The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam's partners in the Secular Social Justice Victory alliance held a joint public meeting in Madurantakam on Friday evening — VCK president Thol. Thirumavalavan, TNCC president Manickam Tagore, MDMK general secretary Vaiko and IUML president K.M. Khader Mohideen addressing the crowd alongside TVK general secretaries N. Anand and Aadhav Arjuna. The one chair that stayed empty belonged to the Chief Minister. Vijay, who had addressed public meetings in both bypoll constituencies earlier, chose instead to campaign separately — holding his own roadshow in Madurantakam on the same day. The absence was conspicuous because the joint rally itself was a concession. Alliance partners had openly expressed dissatisfaction with Vijay's earlier solo campaign in Madurantakam: he had not shared the stage with partner leaders and had omitted most constituents from his speech. VCK general secretary D. Ravikumar said discussions on a coordinated campaign led to the decision to hold the joint meeting — the first since the alliance was formed on September 9. There will be no repeat in Dharapuram: Ravikumar ruled out a joint rally there, citing insufficient time before campaigning closes on October 4. The divided stage is only the latest embarrassment in a bypoll campaign that has hardened into a referendum on TVK's months in office. On Thursday, the Left parties that prop up Vijay's government from outside accused it of leading the field in cash distribution. CPI(M) state secretary P. Shanmugam said villagers in Madurantakam told him that "everyone else is distributing money while we are giving only pamphlets" — and that the ruling TVK was distributing the most. The charge cuts deep: Vijay had collected votes on April 23 promising a "pure force" that would not pay for votes. DMK president M.K. Stalin, campaigning in Dharapuram, widened the attack beyond the bypolls: the TVK government's efficacy, he said, had "declined significantly within a short span of four months", and the state had become a "hunting ground for criminals" — with midnight power cuts to match. He mocked the party as a "Reels Kazhagam", questioned the Chief Minister's foreign visits and agreements signed in London with Indian companies, and called the government's belated disclosure of its Chennai airport letter and unannounced personal-secretary appointments non-transparent. The stakes are real. TVK won 108 of 234 seats in April and governs with the support of the Congress, VCK and IUML, plus external backing from the Communists. The bypolls — necessitated after AIADMK MLAs P. Sathyabama and K. Maragatham Kumaravel resigned and joined TVK — will decide nothing in the Assembly arithmetic but everything in the narrative: whether Vijay's "pure force" still commands the moral high ground it claimed. The TVK camp added a defection to the scoreboard: former AIADMK minister M. Semmalai formally joined the party at a Dharapuram rally. The PMK, meanwhile, declared neutrality — and its MLA Sowmiya Anbumani publicly denied reports that she plans to join the TVK or take a cabinet berth. Forty-nine candidates remain in the fray — 27 in Madurantakam, 22 in Dharapuram. The DMK fields I. Paranthamen and S. Suganya; the Left fights independently, the CPI(M) in Madurantakam and the CPI in Dharapuram, while continuing outside support to the government. Polling is on October 6, counting on October 9.