NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu minister Aadhav Arjuna launched a sharp attack on the DMK, claiming that the party had underestimated his side and was now in a weak position in the Maduranthakam constituency.Arjuna said the DMK had earlier claimed it would win 200 constituencies but was now sitting in the opposition benches.“The DMK, which said that it would win 200 constituencies, is sitting in the Opposition benches. They took us lightly. They said, ‘These people only know how to blow whistles.’ That very whistle came to us as our symbol, and we have blown them away completely with that whistle,” he said.Arjuna further claimed that the DMK was in a “pathetic position” in the constituency and questioned whether the party would even be able to retain its election deposit.“In this constituency, the DMK is in a pathetic position. Will the DMK even get its deposit back?” he said.He also targeted Tamil Nadu leader of opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin, alleging that his remarks were damaging the DMK.“Everything that comes out of the mouth of Udhayanidhi is only obscenity. No one else needs to come to destroy the DMK; MK Stalin’s son is enough. Udhayanidhi Stalin has come to destroy the DMK,” Arjuna said.Bypolls to the Maduranthakam Assembly constituency in Chengelpet district, adjoining Chennai, and the Dharapuram constituency in Tiruppur district of western Tamil Nadu will be held on October 6.The bypolls were necessitated after AIADMK legislators Maragatham Kumaravel and P Sathyabama resigned from their posts and joined the ruling TVK. The party has fielded both of them from the same constituencies they represented after being elected in the April Assembly election.
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This is the first time the TVK government is facing Assembly bypolls since it assumed office in May 2026.The Left parties, which extend outside support to the TVK government and help it retain its majority, have not joined the ruling party-led alliance. Instead, they are contesting the bypolls as a separate front.Candidates of the main opposition DMK, the AIADMK and the Tamil nationalist Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) are also in the fray.The Vanniyar-dominated PMK, which has considerable influence in several northern parts of the state, has not extended support to any party.A key opposition campaign plank is that the bypolls were not a natural outcome but were forced on voters after the TVK “lured AIADMK MLAs” to strengthen its numbers in the Assembly.AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami has already begun campaigning, seeking “justice” over what he has described as the betrayal.
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