Padmanabhapuram
Padmanabhapuram 2026: CPM's Chellaswamy ends DMK run by 15,569 votes
R. Chellaswamy pulled Padmanabhapuram back into the red column for the CPM with 68,938 votes, beating TVK's S. Krishna Kumar on 53,369 by a clean 15,569 votes. The win is the Marxists' first here since the mid-1990s and ends a fifteen-year DMK run built around two-time MLA Mano Thangaraj, who finished out of the medals.
Top 5 candidates
| # | Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CHELLASWAMY. R | CPM | 68,938 | 38.79% |
| 2 | KRISHNA KUMAR. S | TVK | 53,369 | 30.03% |
| 3 | RAMESH. P | BJP | 44,293 | 24.92% |
| 4 | SEELAN | NTK | 11,288 | 6.35% |
| 5 | NOTA | NOTA | 615 | 0.35% |
Postal ballot breakdown
| # | Candidate | Party | Postal votes | EVM votes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CHELLASWAMY. R | CPM | 1,042 | 67,896 | 68,938 |
| 2 | RAMESH. P | BJP | 880 | 43,413 | 44,293 |
| 3 | KRISHNA KUMAR. S | TVK | 628 | 52,741 | 53,369 |
| 4 | SEELAN | NTK | 240 | 11,048 | 11,288 |
| 5 | NOTA | NOTA | 19 | 596 | 615 |
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.
CPM previously held Padmanabhapuram in 1989, 1991 and 1996; the 2026 win is its first here in three decades and arrived as part of the DMK-led front.
About Padmanabhapuram
Padmanabhapuram sits on the old Travancore-Tamil Nadu frontier in western Kanyakumari district, named after the 17th-century wooden palace that served as the seat of the Travancore kings before they shifted to Thiruvananthapuram. The constituency stitches together Thuckalay, Thiruvattar and a string of rubber plantation villages along the Western Ghats foothills. Most signage is bilingual Tamil-Malayalam, and the local economy runs on rubber, cashew, latex sheet factories and a heavy remittance flow from the Gulf. Christian and Nadar communities dominate the demographic mix, and the seat has historically swung between Left and Dravidian poles - the CPM held it through 1989 and 1991, the DMK kept it from 2011 to 2021, and the Marxists are back in 2026.
Travel from Padmanabhapuram
The Padmanabhapuram Palace complex is the obvious anchor - the largest wooden palace in India, kept by the Kerala government but sitting in Tamil Nadu. Pair it with the Thiruvattar Adikesava Perumal temple 8 km north and a swim under Thirparappu falls. Cross-border drivers usually push on to the Mathur trough aqueduct or the Kanyakumari point.
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