Palani
Palani — AIADMK's Ravimanoharan flips Palani back from DMK by just 693 votes
K. Ravimanoharan of AIADMK has won Palani by a wafer-thin 693 votes over TVK's Dr. M. Praveen Kumar, recapturing the Dindigul-district seat that DMK's I.P. Senthilkumar had held in both 2016 and 2021. Senthilkumar's 2021 margin was 30,056 votes over Ravimanoharan himself, making this 2026 result a personal turnaround for the AIADMK candidate.
Top 5 candidates
| # | Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RAVIMANOHARAN. K | AIADMK | 66,986 | 32.39% |
| 2 | DR. PRAVEEN KUMAR. M | TVK | 66,293 | 32.06% |
| 3 | PANDI. N | CPM | 65,534 | 31.69% |
| 4 | MURUGESWARI. B | NTK | 6,300 | 3.05% |
| 5 | NOTA | NOTA | 750 | 0.36% |
Postal ballot breakdown
Postal-ballot leader differs from overall winner. CPM PANDI. N led postal ballots (592), but AIADMK RAVIMANOHARAN. K won the seat overall (66,986).
| # | Candidate | Party | Postal votes | EVM votes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PANDI. N | CPM | 592 | 64,942 | 65,534 |
| 2 | RAVIMANOHARAN. K | AIADMK | 560 | 66,426 | 66,986 |
| 3 | DR. PRAVEEN KUMAR. M | TVK | 551 | 65,742 | 66,293 |
| 4 | MURUGESWARI. B | NTK | 105 | 6,195 | 6,300 |
| 5 | NOTA | NOTA | 12 | 738 | 750 |
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.
Senthil Kumar (DMK) and Ravimanoharan (AIADMK) have shared the seat through three straight cycles since 2011 — a personal Palani rivalry. The 2011 contest was decided by just 1,754 votes.
About Palani
Palani — AC 127 — is built around the Dhandayuthapani Murugan temple on Palani malai, the third and most-visited of Murugan's six Arupadaiveedu hill abodes. The hill shrine, with its idol of nava-pashanam (nine medicinal minerals) attributed to the siddhar Bhogar, draws an estimated 1 crore pilgrims a year, peaking at Thai Poosam and Panguni Uthiram. Palani's Panchamirtham — a banana-jaggery-honey prasadam — carries a GI tag since 2019. The town sits in Dindigul district at the eastern edge of the Western Ghats; the Idumban shrine sits on the smaller adjoining hill, and a winch railway and ropeway carry pilgrims up. Sandalwood and banana farming round out the rural economy.
Palani & the Murugan hill
Palani is one of Murugan's six hill homes — ride the winch or rope car up to Dhandayuthapani's nava-pashanam idol, then walk down past the Idumban shrine on the lower hill. Buy GI-tag Panchamirtham at the temple counter, eat thatte idli at a Adivaram stall, and head out to Thiru Avinankudi at the foot or up to Kodaikanal's pine slopes for a cool-air finish.
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