For four-time Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MLA and cabinet minister KR Periyakaruppan, securing 83,374 votes in the 2026 Tamil Nadu assembly election was not enough as he lost to R Seenivasa Sethupathy
by just one vote.
A first-timer candidate from actor-turned-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), Sethupathy secured 83,375 votes—just one vote more than Periyakaruppan.
Aiming for a fifth consecutive term in 2026, Periyakaruppan was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly from Tiruppattur constituency (185) in Sivaganga district in 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021 elections as a DMK candidate.
Serving as Tamil Nadu’s Minister for Co-operation, Periyakaruppan first won Tiruppattur in 2006 by 5,627 votes, securing 48,128 votes. The votes bagged by him almost doubled in 2011 to 83,485 votes and in the next two elections, 2016 and 2021, he secured more than one lakh votes.
He survived the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) wave in 2011 by just 1,584 votes before bouncing back with dominant wins in 2016 and 2021.
Sholinganallur was on the other end of the spectrum where TVK secured victory against two-time DMK MLA S Aravind Ramesh by a margin of 96,780 votes. P Saravanan secured 2.20 lakh votes against 1.23 lakh votes polled in favour of Ramesh.
Edappadi K Palaniswami, the leader of opposition in Tamil Nadu Assembly, won Edappadi for the fourth consecutive term, securing the largest victory margin in the state at 98,110 votes. He bagged 1.48 lakh votes, about 58 per cent of the valid votes. He has been representing the seat non-stop since 2011. He also won the seat in 1989 and 1991.
Only three candidates crossed a victory margin of 90,000 votes state-wide. The list also includes TVK’s ML Vijayprabhu, who secured Madhavaram seat against two-time MLA S Sudharsanam. Vijayprabhu secured 1.90 lakh votes, 94,985 votes higher than the opponent.
Across the state, only 15 seats had victory margin over 50,000 votes, including the three with 90,000 vote margin. At least 13 were won by TVK and two by AIADMK. DMK did not win a single seat by more than 50,000 votes. Most of DMK’s victories were concentrated in the sub-20,000 margin range. TVK secured a total of 43 seats with a margin above 20,000 votes, the analysis shows.
TVK’s Gains
Apart from Tiruppattur, TVK also secured Polur with less than 500 vote margin. R Abishek secured 67,961 votes, 227 more than P Saravanan from the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam.
In total, in 15 seats, the victory margin was less than 1,000 votes. The five seats with TVK where margin was less than 1,000 votes included Tiruppattur (one vote), Kallakurichi (798 votes), Cumbum (751), Kumbakonam (679) and Polur (227).
AIADMK won Kanniyakumari (214), Tirukkoyilur (285) and Paramathi-Velur (308) by a margin of less than 500 votes. AIADMK won four seats by margins below 1,000 votes, including Palani (693).
DMK won three seats with less than 1,000 margins.
The lone seat won by the BJP in the state also falls under the 1,000-margin category—Udhagamandalam with 976 vote margins against TVK.
Another 30 seats were decided by margins between 1,000 and 3,000 votes, including three going in favour of Congress and two with Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).
From a one-vote upset in Tiruppattur to a 98,110-vote landslide in Edappadi, Tamil Nadu’s 2026 verdict produced both the narrowest and widest wins—with TVK emerging at both ends of the spectrum. Nearly half the state’s 234 seats were decided by margins below 10,000 votes, showing how closely fought the election remained despite TVK’s sweeping gains.
