Gudalur
Gudalur 22,833-vote DMK hold — Dhravidamani consolidates Nilgiris border seat
DMK's M. Dhravidamani retained Gudalur — Tamil Nadu's north-westernmost assembly seat, sitting on the Kerala border at the gateway to the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve — by 22,833 votes over AIADMK's Pon. Jayaseelan. The seat has now stayed with DMK across two consecutive cycles after Pon. Jayaseelan himself flipped it for the party in 2021. Before that, AIADMK's K. Krishnan held it through 2016. Gudalur is one of TN's smallest electorates by size, drawn around the Pandalur–Cherambadi tea-estate belt, the Mudumalai forest fringe and a substantial Kattunayakan tribal population — and a steady Malayali voter share given the seamless Wayanad–Gudalur corridor.
Top 5 candidates
| # | Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DHRAVIDAMANI.M | DMK | 65,590 | 43.78% |
| 2 | PON.JAYASEELAN | AIADMK | 42,757 | 28.54% |
| 3 | DEEPAK SAI KISHORE.A | TVK | 34,962 | 23.34% |
| 4 | KARTHIK.R | NTK | 6,199 | 4.14% |
| 5 | NOTA | NOTA | 871 | 0.58% |
Postal ballot breakdown
| # | Candidate | Party | Postal votes | EVM votes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DHRAVIDAMANI.M | DMK | 664 | 64,926 | 65,590 |
| 2 | PON.JAYASEELAN | AIADMK | 489 | 42,268 | 42,757 |
| 3 | DEEPAK SAI KISHORE.A | TVK | 206 | 34,756 | 34,962 |
| 4 | KARTHIK.R | NTK | 51 | 6,148 | 6,199 |
| 5 | NOTA | NOTA | 8 | 863 | 871 |
Source: Election Commission of India · Form 20 data via results.eci.gov.in
Past results
Verified winners and runners-up across the last five elections, with the major alliance partners each side fielded.
Same Dhravidamani won Gudalur in 2011 (as M. Thiravidamani, DMK) and again in 2026 — the seat's bookend MLA across the post-delimitation era. K. Krishnan (AIADMK) and Pon. Jayaseelan (DMK) traded it through 2016 and 2021. The 2008 delimitation removed the seat's earlier SC reservation and shrunk its boundary; pre-2008 the Gudalur area sat inside the older Pandalur (SC) constituency.
About Gudalur
Gudalur — AC 109 — is Tamil Nadu's north-westernmost assembly constituency, in The Nilgiris district. The seat covers Gudalur and Pandalur taluks, the Cherambadi tea estates, and the Tamil-side gateway to the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, which extends north into Karnataka's Bandipur. The Kerala border runs along the western edge — the Wayanad–Gudalur corridor and the Mananthavady road give the seat a steady Malayali voter and trade footprint. The constituency holds one of TN's largest Kattunayakan tribal populations, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group concentrated in the forest-fringe panchayats.
Gudalur & Mudumalai
Gudalur is the Nilgiris' quieter west — a tea-estate slope tipping into Mudumalai's elephant corridor, where the Tamil hills meet the Kerala plateau. Drive the Theppakadu safari at first light, then climb to Pykara's lake-and-falls or down to Cherambadi's clipped tea hedges. Push another hour west and Wayanad's Edakkal caves and Banasura Sagar dam open up; push east and Ooty's Botanical Gardens are 50 km of hairpin bends away.
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