A fortnight after the shocking demise of Tamil Nadu Congress MLA Thirumahan Everaa, who was elected from the Erode East constituency, the Election Commission of India has on Wednesday - January 18 announced the schedule for by-election in the constituency as the political parties in the state are preparing to vie in the battle. 

As per the announcement from the Election Commission, the bypoll for the Erode East constituency will be held on February 27, 2023, and the counting of votes will take place on March 2, 2023, during which the results will be announced. The filing of nomination will begin on January 31 and the last date to file nominations will be February 7. The scrutiny of nominations will take place on February 8 and the last date to withdraw the nomination will be February 10. 

As the date is announced, the political parties are stepping up their game to secure this one crucial seat as they are charting out a plan to launch their campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Amid the political pragmatism that the ruling party of the state would win the by-elections for the assembly, the opposition parties including the ADMK and BJP are aiming to defeat the DMK, while the latter is mulling fielding its own candidate. 

In the 2021 assembly polls, Erode East was awarded to the Congress party, which is a part of the DMK alliance and now, the sources say that the DMK has decided to contest in the bypoll to triumph the race in the ADMK's stronghold Kongu belt. On the other hand, the Congress party is also in talks with DMK to contest again from Erode East with the view of retaining its strength in the assembly. 

On the other side of the aisle, the beleaguering ADMK is still finding ways for a political consensus and as the legal battle between both Edappadi Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam is before the Supreme Court, it is a litmus test for both of them in taking over the leadership ahead of the bypoll. Palaniswami is taking the bypoll as the prospect to weigh the support from the BJP for him in taking over the leadership and to leading the charge of ADMK in the bypoll. 

Palaniswami would also face setback from ADMK's ally Tamil Manila Congress (TMK), which contested in Erode East in the 2021 polls. TMK's Chief GK Vasan would be bidding for the seat as his party's candidate lost the race to Congress's Thirumahan Everaa in a thin margin in 2021. Though Palaniswami-led ADMK plans to contest directly in the bypoll, it has to convince its allied parties including BJP, whose state president Annamalai has been overtly expressing that the party should contest independently to display its growing voter base. 

BJP has four MLAs currently in the assembly and the party's alliance with the ADMK had played a vital role in winning these seats and of these four MLAs, two are from the Kongu belt, where DMK didn't do well in the 2021 polls. While DMK is going for the bypoll with an advantage as the ruling party, the opposition camps are witnessing tumultuous events and though Annamalai wishes to contest alone, the BJP's central leadership is not going to risk its alliance with the ADMK keeping in mind of the 2024 general elections. 

We can expect a hard fight between the political parties and as the election date has been announced, we can also witness the furores within the parties in finalizing the candidacy. With the voters' verdict from Erode East, the Tamil Nadu parties would beef up their campaigns for the big battle next year. Congress MLA Thirumahan Everaa, who was the great-grandson of Periyar EV Ramasamy, has passed away on January 4 at the age of 46 due to heart attack.