Thattanchavady Bypoll Turns Multi-Cornered as Congress and CPI Enter the Fray
The bypoll to the Thattanchavady Assembly constituency in Puducherry is set to be a multi-cornered contest, with the Congress and the Communist Party of India (CPI) announcing their candidates for the October 6 poll.
The All India Congress Committee declared E. Vinayagam as its candidate, days after he joined the party. The CPI, meanwhile, announced that its party secretary A. M. Saleem will file his nomination papers on Wednesday, irrespective of the stand taken by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) on the bypoll.
The Congress decision followed a meeting in Chennai on Tuesday, where a delegation led by Member of Parliament and Puducherry Pradesh Congress Committee chief V. Vaithilingam met Tamil Nadu Minister for Water Resources and TVK general secretary N. Anand to seek the party's support for its candidate. Both the Congress and the CPI are supporting the TVK government in Tamil Nadu. The CPI had last week also sought the TVK's backing for the bypoll.
The bypoll became necessary after Chief Minister and AINRC founder N. Rangasamy vacated Thattanchavady, having chosen to retain the Mangalam seat, which he had also won in the April Assembly elections.
Mr. Vinayagam is not new to the constituency. In the April Assembly polls, he contested from Thattanchavady as the candidate of Neyam Makkal Kazhagam, a regional outfit that fought the elections as an ally of the TVK in Puducherry, and finished second with 5,583 votes against Mr. Rangasamy. He joined the Congress only a few days ago.
The ruling AINRC has fielded former legislator Ashok Anand, whose candidature was announced soon after the Election Commission of India released the bypoll schedule. The DMK has brought in former CPI leader Sethu Selvam as its candidate.
Mr. Selvam has contested from Thattanchavady twice before. As the CPI candidate in the 2021 Assembly polls, he stood second against Mr. Rangasamy. He was expelled from the CPI in 2025 over allegations of financial impropriety, and contested the April Assembly polls as an Independent. He came third, securing around 17 per cent of the votes and pushing Mr. Vaithilingam to fourth place.
Meanwhile, Mr. Rangasamy convened a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance on Tuesday to finalise its strategy for the bypoll. Leaders of the BJP and the AIADMK, besides Ministers and legislators of the ruling party, attended the meeting. Speaking there, the Chief Minister asked Ministers and legislators to work for the victory of Mr. Ashok Anand with a margin larger than what the party achieved in the Assembly elections.
According to a release from the Election Department, two candidates filed their nominations on Tuesday: S. Karthikumari of the Naam Tamilar Katchi and S. Vasanth, an Independent.
The last date for filing nomination papers is September 16. Party sources said the candidates of the AINRC, the Congress, the DMK and the CPI are expected to file their papers on the final day. The outcome of the contest is being watched closely in the Union Territory as an indicator of the standing of the ruling party and of the Opposition's ability to consolidate votes after the Assembly elections.
