Kovilpatti
Kovilpatti — DMK's K. Karunanithi ends Kadambur Raju's 15-year AIADMK hold by 843 votes
Kovilpatti was Kadambur C. Raju's seat for three straight terms — AIADMK landslides in 2011 (margin 26,480) and 2021 (12,403), with a famous 428-vote squeaker in 2016. CPI's S. Rajendran had held it in 2001. In 2026 DMK's K. Karunanithi (no relation to the late former CM) finally prised it loose, beating TVK's S. Balasubramanian by just 843 votes in a tight three-cornered contest.
Top 5 candidates
| # | Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | KARUNANITHI.K | DMK | 61,643 | 32.15% |
| 2 | BALASUBRAMANIAN.S | TVK | 60,800 | 31.71% |
| 3 | KADAMBUR RAJU.C | AIADMK | 53,014 | 27.65% |
| 4 | PANDI.P | NTK | 11,919 | 6.22% |
| 5 | ATHIKUMAR KUDUMBAR.B | IND | 2,992 | 1.56% |
Postal ballot breakdown
| # | Candidate | Party | Postal votes | EVM votes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | KARUNANITHI.K | DMK | 840 | 60,803 | 61,643 |
| 2 | BALASUBRAMANIAN.S | TVK | 658 | 60,142 | 60,800 |
| 3 | KADAMBUR RAJU.C | AIADMK | 621 | 52,393 | 53,014 |
| 4 | PANDI.P | NTK | 228 | 11,691 | 11,919 |
| 5 | ATHIKUMAR KUDUMBAR.B | IND | 60 | 2,932 | 2,992 |
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.
About Kovilpatti
Kovilpatti is the cotton-and-jaggery town of Thoothukudi's drylands, best known for Kadalai Mittai — the brittle of roasted groundnut and palm jaggery that earned a GI tag in 2014 and still ships out of the same family workshops on Mill Street. Cotton spinning mills and matchstick units gave the town its 20th-century industrial weight, on the Madurai-Tirunelveli rail line and the road that branches east to Tiruchendur's seaside Murugan temple. The constituency runs out into rain-fed black-cotton soil, with Ettayapuram — the poet Subramania Bharati's birthplace — just to the north.
Kovilpatti & the Kadalai Mittai belt
Kovilpatti is Kadalai Mittai country — the GI-tagged groundnut-jaggery brittle still pressed by hand on Mill Street. Cotton mills and match works built the town on the Madurai-Tirunelveli line; branch east for Tiruchendur's seaside Murugan, or north to Ettayapuram, where Subramania Bharati was born.
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