The Election Commission scheduled voting in Tamil Nadu's Madurantakam and Dharapuram Assembly constituencies for October 6, 2026, with nominations closing on September 16. Both seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes. Separate notifications published in the state gazette on September 9 fixed scrutiny for September 17 and the withdrawal deadline for September 19. They set polling hours of 7 am to 6 pm.
The notices identify the resignations of K. Maragatham Kumaravel in Madurantakam and P. Sathyabama in Dharapuram as the reasons for the vacancies. Both give May 25 as the date the seats became vacant. Each requires the election to be completed before October 11. Those documents establish the formal schedule following the September 7 announcement; counting was scheduled for October 9, according to contemporaneous reporting by The New Indian Express.
Reporting on September 8, the newspaper said Kumaravel and Sathyabama had won as AIADMK candidates before resigning and joining the ruling TVK. It also explained why the announcement covered only two of Tamil Nadu's seven vacant seats. Citing a senior Election Commission official, it reported pending election petitions in Tiruchy East, Perundurai, Ambasamudram, Viralimalai and Karur. The commission had told the Madras High Court on August 24 that bypolls there would await disposal of those petitions.
In a later report published on October 7, The New Indian Express cited the ECI website's approximate turnout at 9 pm on polling day: 86.26% in Madurantakam and 80.30% in Dharapuram. Its April comparators were 93.22% and 89.89%, respectively. That put the reported declines at 6.96 and 9.59 percentage points. The newspaper also reported temporary voting interruptions caused by electronic voting machine faults, including at Kottapulipalayam in Dharapuram. It said a malfunctioning machine in Madurantakam was subsequently repaired.
