State Scan: Tamil Nadu by-polls to 20 Assembly seats will be a test for all

The coming elections to 20 Assembly seats are important to both factions of the AIADMK and DMK

The AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu, after 20 months of political instability since J Jayalalithaa’s death, can breathe easy, at least for now, because the Madras High Court has upheld the Tamil Nadu Assembly speaker’s order disqualifying the 18 dissident AIADMK MLAs of the T T V Dinakaran faction.

For Dinakaran and for his jailed aunt V K Sasikala, who was also an aide of J Jayalalithaa, the verdict is a setback. For Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami  (EPS) and his deputy O Paneerselvam (OPS), while the verdict is good news, the challenge is the by-polls for the 20 constituencies (for