Madras High Court Dismisses Plea To Ban Pre-Poll Alliance Between Political Parties

The Madras High Court has dismissed a plea seeking directions to the Election Commission of India to ban pre-poll alliances between political parties. The bench of Chief Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan remarked that a direction could not be issued to the ECI to restrict parties from forming pre-poll alliances. The bench also noted that its Madurai bench had earlier dismissed a similar plea seeking identical relief. Thus, finding no merits, the court dismissed the plea.A detailed order copy is awaited. 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. 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. Arguing that pre-poll alliances are unholy alliances that would weaken a large democracy like ours, the petitioner had thus argued that it must be banned, especially in view of the upcoming assembly elections. Case Title: R Viswanathan @ MGR Viswanathan v. The Union of India and Others Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Mad) 122 Case No: WP 7882 of 2026

Madras High Court Dismisses Plea To Ban Pre-Poll Alliance Between Political Parties

Upasana Sajeev

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