CHENNAI: The bypolls in Madurantakam and Dharapuram assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu recorded a significant dip in voter turnout on Tuesday compared with that in the April 23 election. Madurantakam, which had registered a high 93.23% turnout in the April election, recorded around 86.26% polling in Tuesday’s bypoll, marking a decline of about 6.97 percentage points. Dharapuram, which had recorded 89.96% turnout in April, registered 80.30% on Tuesday.The dip came despite brisk polling in both constituencies during the initial hours. In Madurantakam, the turnout stood at 15.99% in the first two hours before rising to 35.55% by 11am and crossing 50% by 1pm. Polling remained largely peaceful, barring minor technical glitches reported at a few polling stations.The Madurantakam bypoll has turned into a three-way contest between former AIADMK MLA Maragatham Kumaravel, who is contesting for TVK on the Whistle symbol, DMK’s I Paranthaman and the AIADMK candidate Kanitha Sampath. Left front and NTK have also fielded candidates in the election.Maragatham had won the April election as an AIADMK candidate with 34.95% of the votes, defeating her nearest rival by around 7,000 votes. TVK’s candidate Ezhil Katharine Ezhilmalai had finished second with 62,090 votes.Dharapuram too witnessed a three-way contest, with former AIADMK MLA P Sathyabama contesting for TVK. In April, Sathyabama secured 40.56% of the votes, while DMK’s Indirani T finished second with 64,373 votes and the TVK candidate finished third with 46,438 votes.“If you switch parties once a week and elections are held twice a week, people will be fed up with elections,” CPM state secretary M Veerapandian said, taking a dig at Maragatham Kumaravel and Sathyabama for resigning their MLA posts and contesting the bypolls on TVK’s whistle symbol within five months of the assembly election.DMK candidate I Paranthaman expressed confidence of winning the Madurantakam bypoll, saying the response from voters indicated support for his party. After touring polling stations, he said the reception from the people had “guaranteed” a DMK victory.Maragatham expressed confidence of returning to the assembly. She rejected allegations of bribing voters, saying it was against the principles of TVK and its leader Vijay.
