CHENNAI: There are five Senthil Kumar’s in the fray in Coimbatore South assembly constituency. While one of the Senthil Kumar is the official candidate of TVK, the rest are independents. This is the constituency where former DMK minister V Senthil Balaji is contesting. In Perambur, where TVK president Vijay is contesting there are two more Vijays and two Josephs. Similar proxy candidates have resurfaced in more than 100 constituencies in the 2026 Tamil Nadu elections, mirroring names of prominent contenders. In Thondamuthur, where AIADMK’s S P Velumani is contesting, three Karthikeyans appear in the name of the DMK’s official candidate N Karthikeyan. In Thurayur assembly segment in Trichy district where AIADMK has fielded Saroja, there are three more of her namesakes in the fray while Mannargudi has four Kamarajs, complicating choices for NDA voters. This is not coincidence, say partymen. They point out that political opponents field namesakes of popular candidates in a bid to confuse voters. The pattern showed impact in close contests. In Katpadi in 2021, where Duraimurugan won by a meagre 700 votes, there were three namesakes of AIADMK candidate Ramu. The independent candidates K Ramu and D Ramu had secured 350 votes and 99 votes while Raman got 144 votes.
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In a move aimed at mitigating this confusion, Election Commission (EC) has added candidate photographs on EVMs along with party symbols this time.Psephologist R Chandrasekaran said courts have taken note but enforcement remains weak. “The Kerala high court called this a ‘massacre of democracy’, warning that namesake candidates are being used to deceive voters. Yet, despite such observations, the practice continues due to limited intervention in curbing electoral manipulation,” he said.TVK functionary T Selvakumaran said photographs may help but are not enough. “For a party like TVK with many new faces, voters are not familiar with candidates, so the symbol becomes key. But even symbols create confusion — free symbols like hand rollers resemble our whistle. Such tactics must be acted against by the EC,” he said.
