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Tamil Nadu's ruling Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) on Thursday announced its candidates for the Madurantakam and Dharapuram assembly by-elections to be held on October 6. The party has appointed former AIADMK MLA K. Maragatam Kumaravel and P. Satyabhama have been fielded.

Both the leaders had left AIADMK and joined TVK on May 25 and after resigning from the post of MLA, a situation of by-election was created on these two seats. Both Madurantakam and Dharapuram are assembly constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC). The Election Commission has fixed voting on these seats on 6th October and counting of votes on 9th October.

Of. Maragatam Kumaravel has previously been the MLA from Madurantakam and is currently the Deputy General Secretary of TVK. Whereas, former Dharapuram MLA P. Satyabhama is the Tiruppur South-East District Secretary of the party.

According to party sources, both the leaders were expected to be given tickets in the by-elections soon after joining TVK.

TVK President and Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay appealed to party officials and workers to work unitedly to ensure the victory of both the candidates. He said Maragatham Kumaravel and Satyabhama would contest the elections as candidates of the secular Social Justice Victory Alliance.

With this announcement the contest on both the seats has become interesting. DMK (DMK) has fielded I. Paranthaman from Madurantakam and S. from Dharapuram. Suganya has been made the candidate.

At the same time, AIADMK is preparing to recapture both these seats and has sought support from its allies including BJP.

This by-election is being considered an important political test for TVK after the formation of the government. The party has bet on candidates who have experience of winning elections before, local organizational hold and good understanding of the respective areas.

On the other hand, AIADMK is preparing to use these elections as an opportunity to regain its old strongholds, while DMK will try to take advantage of the multi-cornered contest.

The election campaign is likely to intensify after the nomination process is completed. The strength of alliances, local issues and personal influence of the candidates will play an important role in deciding the election outcome. The results of these two seats will be considered an indication of the initial inclination of the public towards the Vijay government and the changing political circumstances of Tamil Nadu.