Plea In Madras High Court Seeks Ban On Pre-Poll Alliance Between Political Parties, Says It Is Against Democracy

When the matter was taken up on Monday (March 10), the petitioner appeared in person before the bench comprising Chief Justice S.A. Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan.

However, as the petitioner continued to make submissions in Tamil, the bench informed him that the Chief Justice was not conversant with the language. The Court observed that the petitioner could either engage counsel to assist him in the proceedings or permit the bench to decide the matter on merits. Upon the petitioner expressing his intention to engage counsel, the Court adjourned the matter for a week.

In his plea, the petitioner R Viswanathan argued that pre-poll alliances were often formed, not in the interest of democracy but with selfish motives to defeat a common political enemy. It has been submitted that pre-poll alliances are formed to gain political power by hook or crook without any ideology, and the parties are not bothered about the welfare of the people.

“Pre-poll alliances are nothing but alliances of convenience that undermine the stable democracy. Pre-poll alliances are fragile where parties switch over sides, treating the electoral mandate as secondary to their personal interests,” the plea stated.

The plea further states that often, smaller political parties get affected in pre-poll alliances and they are forced to merge with larger parties. It has been argued that due to a pre-poll alliance, the voters are put in pathetic positions where they have no other alternative but to vote for the alliance partners, sometimes against their wishes.

The petitioner thus argued that pre-poll alliances are unholy alliances that would weaken a large democracy like ours. It has been argued that pre-poll alliances are nothing but exploitation of the ignorance of innocent voters and thus they must be banned, especially in view of the upcoming assembly elections.

The petitioner has also sought directions to the Election Commission of India to instruct political parties not to carry out election campaigns in the state prior to ECI's notification. The petitioner argued that many of the larger political parties had already started their poll campaign, even though the ECI had not made any official notification yet. The petitioner argued that such a practice would put smaller political parties and independent candidates at a disadvantage since they would lag behind the candidates of the recognised political parties.

Case Title: R Viswanathan @ MGR Viswanathan v. The Union of India and Others

Case No: WP 7882 of 2026