Police book Udhayanidhi Stalin for putting minor on campaign van in Dharapuram

Dharapuram, Oct 5 — Tiruppur district police have registered a case against Tamil Nadu Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin for allegedly involving a minor in election campaigning for the Dharapuram Assembly by-election, with polling just a day away. According to police, the incident took place on Saturday during a campaign meeting near the Periyar statue in Dharapuram town. Udhayanidhi, the DMK's star campaigner for the bypoll, is alleged to have brought a minor boy onto his campaign van and had him address the crowd. The boy, police said, made remarks targeting Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, chanting "Om Kali.. Bhadra Kali..." — words the police described as insulting to the Chief Minister. PTI reported that the case, registered at the Dharapuram police station, invokes Section 123(1) of the Representation of the People Act and Section 83 of the Juvenile Justice Act. The Election Commission's guidelines strictly prohibit the involvement of children in any election-related activity, and police cited those directives as the basis for the case. Udhayanidhi was in Dharapuram campaigning for the DMK's candidate, advocate S. Suganya, addressing voters in the Nochipalayam area. At the rally, the former Deputy Chief Minister acknowledged that voters had not given the DMK victory in the last election, but reminded them that the party had represented the constituency in the Assembly from 2021 to 2026. The Dharapuram bypoll, polling on October 6 with counting on October 9, has become one of the most watched contests in recent Tamil Nadu politics. The seat fell vacant after AIADMK legislator P. Sathyabama resigned in May 2026, barely weeks after winning the seat on an AIADMK ticket in the Assembly elections. She subsequently joined the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam and is now contesting as the TVK candidate — a defection that has made the bypoll the first real electoral test of Chief Minister Vijay's minority government. The contest is five-cornered: Sathyabama for the TVK, Suganya for the DMK, K. Bhanumathi for the AIADMK, P. Lakshmanan for the CPI and M. Karthika for the NTK. Dharapuram is a Scheduled Caste-reserved constituency in Tiruppur district, where Scheduled Castes make up roughly a quarter of the electorate. Campaigning for both Dharapuram and Madurantakam — the other seat going to the polls on October 6 — ended on Sunday evening. What the police case means for the DMK's final push, and whether the Election Commission takes further cognisance, will be watched closely on polling day.