Polling day acid test: Madurantakam and Dharapuram vote as TVK's 150-day record faces its first jury

Madurantakam and Dharapuram went to the polls on Tuesday in by-elections that have been billed, fairly, as an acid test for Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay's four-month-old Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam government. Polling began at 7 AM under heavy security and brisk early voting was reported at several booths in both constituencies, with district administrations declaring a local holiday to push up turnout. Voting closes at 6 PM and votes will be counted on October 9. The arithmetic is simple and the stakes are personal. These are the first elections since the April 23 Assembly verdict that brought TVK to power, and Vijay has staked his prestige on them in a way no sitting Tamil Nadu chief minister normally would in a bypoll. He campaigned for four days, including a roadshow in Madurantakam on September 25 and a closing rally in Dharapuram on September 30. A sitting chief minister begging for votes in two by-elections four months after a sweeping mandate tells its own story about how the 150-day record is being read outside the party headquarters. The contests carry an unavoidable stain. Both seats fell vacant after AIADMK legislators Maragatham Kumaravel (Madurantakam) and P Sathyabama (Dharapuram) resigned from the Assembly on May 25, less than three weeks after entering it, and walked into the ruling party. TVK has now renominated both on its whistle symbol. The opposition has hammered this as horse-trading, and it is the rare charge that lands cleanly: the MLAs won on one mandate and are asking voters to bless the defection. Madurantakam has 2,12,639 voters across 268 polling stations; Dharapuram has 2,22,406 electors across 282 stations. The fields are crowded. In Madurantakam, TVK's Maragatham Kumaravel faces DMK's Paranthaman, AIADMK's Kanitha Sampath, CPM's Suganthi and NTK's Janakiraman among 28 candidates. In Dharapuram, TVK's P Sathyabama is pitted against DMK's Suganya, AIADMK's Banumathi, CPI's Lakshmanan and NTK's Karthika. Note the fracture on the ruling side: the CPI and CPM extend outside support to the TVK government but are contesting against it here, a quiet vote of no confidence from supposed allies. DMK president M K Stalin campaigned personally, with Udhayanidhi Stalin and Kanimozhi Karunanidhi joining the push. Turnout is the number to watch. Bypolls usually dip below general-election levels, but this one carries the weight of a referendum. A comfortable TVK hold of both seats lets Vijay claim a mandate for the 150-day sprint of welfare announcements, from 200 free units of power to TASMAC closures. A narrow escape or, worse, a loss in either seat would confirm what the critics already allege: that the gloss is fading faster than the government admits, and that voters remember who defected and why. The jury is at the booth today; its verdict arrives October 9.