AIADMK chief Edappadi K. Palaniswami campaigned in Dharapuram on 27–28 Sep 2026 for candidate K. Banumathi, making the former MLA’s switch to TVK the centre of his attack. His claims, and the record.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami campaigned in the Dharapuram (SC) constituency on September 27 and 28, 2026, seeking votes for the party’s by-election candidate K. Banumathi ahead of polling on October 6. Speaking at Kannivadi and Moolanur in Tiruppur district, he made the resignation of the seat’s former MLA — and her switch to the ruling TVK — the centre of his attack, and targeted Chief Minister Vijay directly.
The main points of his speeches, as reported by Maalaimalar, Dinakaran, Vikatan and Seithi Saral — all his claims:
| Theme | His claim |
|---|---|
| The by-election | He said everyone in Dharapuram knew why the by-election had come: the MLA elected on the AIADMK’s Two Leaves symbol had ignored the people’s verdict and crossed over to TVK. He urged voters to teach a lesson and to make TVK candidate P. Sathyabama lose her deposit. |
| “AIADMK will swallow TVK” | Responding to a TVK leader’s remark that TVK would gradually absorb the AIADMK, he said this would not happen even in a dream — it was the AIADMK that would swallow TVK — and pointed to the many challenges the party had survived. |
| TVK and the DMK | He called TVK a branch of the DMK and alleged that Vijay had voted for the DMK in 2021. |
| Karur | He criticised Vijay’s response to the Karur crowd crush, saying the families had been brought to Chennai to be consoled. |
| The Left parties | He said the Left parties, which are contesting separately, had called the bypolls unnecessary and warned they could withdraw support to the government. |
| Farm loans | He said TVK had promised a loan waiver for small and marginal farmers during the election. |
| Women’s safety | On September 28 he questioned the government’s record on women’s safety, citing a recent case involving a girl in Madurantakam. |
| New Secretariat | He criticised spending public money on a sea-facing Secretariat — a reference to the Pattinapakkam proposal now under review. |
TVK has defended the switch of its candidates. At his Madurantakam rally on September 25, Vijay described the move by former AIADMK MLAs as a political decision amid shifting equations and asked voters to look beyond the resignations. On Karur, the government’s record shows that Vijay visited Karur on July 10, 2026, met the victims’ families, announced a memorial and handed over 32 compassionate-ground job orders; on the first anniversary on September 27 he paid tribute to the 41 people who died. The Pattinapakkam Secretariat site was placed under review on September 24 after protests by fishermen. A direct TVK response to Palaniswami’s latest remarks had not been reported at the time of writing.
The five-cornered contest pits TVK’s P. Sathyabama — who won the seat for the AIADMK in May with 81,100 votes — against DMK’s S. Suganya, AIADMK’s K. Banumathi, CPI’s P. Lakshmanan and NTK’s M. Karthika. Palaniswami is scheduled to return to Dharapuram on October 2, and CM Vijay holds a public meeting in the constituency on September 30. Campaigning ends at 6 PM on October 4.
Sources: Maalaimalar, Dinakaran, Vikatan, Seithi Saral. Claims made in campaign speeches are the speaker’s own and are reported as such.
By-Election Dharapuram AIADMK Day 141