The polling in Tamil Nadu’s 39 Lok Sabha seats will be held in the first phase on a single day on April 19, chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced on Saturday. The counting of votes will be on June 4.

The by-election to the Vilavancode assembly constituency will also be held along with the parliamentary polls after the seat fell vacant when MLA S Vijayadharani resigned from the Congress to switch to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in February.

The Tirukkoyilur assembly was also initially listed in the by-election list where Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MLA K Ponmudi was disqualified in December 2023 after the Madras high court convicted him in a corruption case. However, the Election Commission of India (ECI) corrected this and removed Tirukkoyilur from this list as Ponmudi was reinstated on March 13 after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction and sentence.

The parliamentary elections in Tamil Nadu will be a three cornered contest between the ruling DMK, opposition All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the BJP. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections the DMK led by M K Stalin, current chief minister, swept 38 out of the 39 seats. The AIADMK won one seat with O Ravindranath, who along with his father O Panneerselvam, have now been booted out of the party. The father and the son are likely to join the BJP. In 2019, the AIADMK was in alliance with the BJP. However, they parted ways in September last year.

The DMK, which is a part of the INDIA bloc, has inked a seat sharing formula similar to that in 2019. The DMK will contest in 21 constituencies–two seats less than what they contested in 2019. The DMK’s main ally Congress will battle in 9 seats. The remaining nine seats are being contested by allies Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK-2), CPI (M)-2, CPI-2, IUML-1, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK-1), Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi (KMDK-1). Actor-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) will be campaigning for the DMK led alliance and has been promised a Rajya Sabha seat.

The AIADMK led by Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) has not announced any allies yet. This is EPS’ first election since he took over the party reigns after expelling Panneerselvam and his supporters. EPS has also stuck to his decision not to have any truck with the BJP after they came together for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Expelled AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) has joined the BJP’s alliance. After the AIADMK walked out, the allies who were remaining in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) such as the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) have been in talks with the Dravidian major as well as the BJP.

The BJP has been trying hard to gain a foothold in the southern state that has led Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the state five times since January. Since 1967, the DMK and AIADMK have governed the state where no national party has been able to make a mark.

The DMK’s campaign has focussed on deteriorating Centre-state relations, retrieving state autonomy and rights. Chief minister and DMK president M K Stalin has accused the AIADMK of being subservient to the BJP and supporting their legislations such as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). He has repeatedly called the BJP-led Union government and PM Modi as fascist and communal seeking votes for INDIA bloc to protect the country’s secularism.

The BJP has accused the DMK of corruption and dynastic politics. The party has targeted the DMK over Senthil Balaji (a minister until February)’s arrest on money laundering charges and the corruption cases against several other ministers in the Madras high court.

The DMK is also facing the heat from the AIADMK and the BJP after one of its former members Jaffar Sadiq was arrested by the Narcotics Crime Bureau (NCB) earlier this month in an international drug smuggling case.