CHENNAI - The forthcoming by-elections for five assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu is set to be a four-cornered fight with the DMDK deciding to contest on its own.

Now the state’s ruling DMK-Congress combine will cross swords with the DMDK, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the two Communist parties — Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Communist Party of India (CPI).

Earlier the major opposition party AIADMK and its allies — MDMK and PMK — had decided to boycott the by-polls next month, alleging that the elections would not be free and fair.

AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa has asked her party cadres to not vote in the elections.

The constituencies for which by-polls are to be held Aug 18 are Bargur, Thondamuthur, Cumbum, Illayangudi and Srivaikundam.

The ruling DMK will contest in Bargur, Illayankudi and Cumbum and has named its candidates while its ally Congress will field its candidates for Thondamuthur and Srivaikundam seats.

The Communist parties will contest only four seats and support a friendly party in the fifth one.

While the CPI-M will contest in Thondamathur and Cumbum constituencies, CPI will test its strength in Srivaikumdam and Bargur.

According to a BJP official, the party will be going it alone in the elections in all the five seats unlike in the Lok Sabha polls where it partnered with a clutch of small parties.

“In two days the candidates will be announced,” he added.

According to reports, DMDK party officials were in favour of boycotting the polls like AIADMK. But the party leader, actor-turned-politician Vijaykant, Sunday decided to test the party’s strength.

In the 2006 assembly elections the party went on its own and only Vijaykant emerged victorious.

Disagreeing with the AIADMK’s poll boycott decision, political commentator Cho Ramaswamy told IANS: “The boycott will enable Vijayakanth’s DMDK to improve its vote share.”

But Ramaswamy does not think the DMDK will gain any permanent advantage.

“The advantage for DMDK will be of transitory appearance as everybody knows that AIADMK boycotted the polls. Vijaykant has a good chance of improving his vote share,” he said.

The DMDK contested in all the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone seat in Puducherry on its own in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

In Tamil Nadu it secured over over 2.9 million votes out of around 30 million votes polled, thereby getting around 10 percent of the vote share. The party came third in 29 seats out of the 40 it contested.

Though the DMDK has increased its vote share marginally over its 8.33 percent in the 2006 Tamil Nadu assembly elections, it has fallen far short of its initial expectations.

Eight DMDK candidates got over 100,000 votes and a couple of them got over 90,000.