The 1981 byelection that triggered twists and turns in Tamil Nadu politics

Tamil Nadu is yet again experiencing the “flavour of byelections.” On October 6, Madurantakam in the north and Dharapuram in the west will have polling to decide their representatives to the Assembly. As five more constituencies are also vacant, byelections are expected again, once legal hurdles are cleared.

There is also an ongoing litigation in the Madras High Court over the election results in the Tirupattur Assembly constituency, where the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK)’s candidate R. Seenivasa Sethupathy was declared elected by just one vote.

Interestingly, 40 years ago, Tirupattur hogged the limelight, even at the national level, for strange reasons. The constituency’s seat in the Assembly went vacant following the death of the 58-year-old V. Valmiki of the Congress (Indira) – which was how the Congress was called then – in Karaikudi in December 1980.