Tamil Nadu Byelection Results 2026: TVK Wins Madurantakam and Dharapuram, Reaches 109 Seats

What the final byelection results show

The byelection results for Tamil Nadu's two Assembly constituencies were declared on October 9, 2026. In Madurantakam, TVK candidate Maragatham Kumaravel polled 70,916 votes to defeat DMK's I Paranthaman, who secured 51,675 votes, by a margin of 19,241 votes. AIADMK's Kanitha Sampath finished third with 46,431 votes. In Dharapuram, TVK's P Sathyabama won by 9,471 votes. Both seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes, and polling was held on October 6.

The Times of India reported the final Madurantakam figures and confirmed that the two victories took TVK's strength to 109 in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly.

Why these bypolls were held

The vacancies were created by defections rather than deaths or disqualifications. According to ThePrint's PTI feed, seven vacancies arose in the 234-member Assembly after resignations. Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay retained Perambur and resigned Tiruchirappalli (East). Six AIADMK MLAs—Maragatham Kumaravel (Madurantakam), Sathyabama (Dharapuram), S Jayakumar (Perundurai), Esakki Subaya (Ambasamudram), C Vijayabhaskar (Viralimalai) and M R Vijayabhaskar (Karur)—resigned on May 25, 2026 and joined TVK.

This made the October 6 polls the first electoral test of the TVK-led minority government formed in May 2026.

The majority arithmetic for the Vijay government

Before these bypolls, TVK had 107 MLAs, including the Speaker. The two wins raise that tally to 109. A simple majority in the 234-member Assembly is 118, so the government remains nine seats short even after retaining both seats.

Five Tamil Nadu seats are still vacant: Perundurai, Karur, Tiruchirappalli East, Viralimalai and Ambasamudram. The effective House strength is 227. If bypolls are eventually held for all five and TVK wins each one, its strength would reach 114—still four short of the majority mark. That arithmetic explains why every future vacancy matters to the ruling coalition.

Seat position before and after October 9

Party	MLAs before bypolls	After two TVK wins
TVK	107 (incl. Speaker)	109
DMK	59	59
AIADMK	41	41
Congress	5	5
PMK	4	4
CPI / CPI(M)	2 each	2 each
VCK / IUML	2 each	2 each
BJP / DMDK / AMMK	1 each	1 each

Source: ThePrint/PTI, October 9, 2026.

Puducherry's Thattanchavady: early trend, not final result

In the Union Territory of Puducherry, early counting trends on October 9 favoured Chief Minister N Rangasamy-led AINRC in Thattanchavady. The PTI report noted that the party leads the NDA coalition ministry there. However, the report was published while counting was still underway, and the final certified result should be confirmed separately from the Election Commission.

Turnout and search interest

Turnout in Madurantakam was 55.19 per cent at the 1 PM reading on polling day, compared with 93.36 per cent in the April 2026 general election. Dharapuram recorded 56.09 per cent at the same stage. The bypoll turnout was therefore far lower than the general election figure on both seats.

Search interest in byelection results also spiked across India on October 9. Google Trends India listed the term as trending, along with related queries such as "madurantakam election result 2026" and "tn election result". Trends data measures approximate search activity only; it does not validate vote counts or official declarations.