Palayamkottai
Palayamkottai 2026: Abdul Wahab keeps DMK seat by 13,805 votes
M. Abdul Wahab returned to the Palayamkottai assembly with 79,744 votes, holding off TVK's Maria John on 65,939 in an 18-cornered contest. The 13,805-vote margin is much tighter than his 52,141-vote sweep in 2021, with TVK replacing AIADMK as the principal challenger in this Tirunelveli twin-city seat.
Top 5 candidates
| # | Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | M.ABDUL WAHAB | DMK | 79,744 | 44.93% |
| 2 | MARIA JOHN | TVK | 65,939 | 37.15% |
| 3 | SYED SULTHAN SAMSUDEEN | AIADMK | 19,732 | 11.12% |
| 4 | SANKARA NARAYANAN ALIAS SARAN | NTK | 10,465 | 5.90% |
| 5 | NOTA | NOTA | 851 | 0.48% |
Postal ballot breakdown
| # | Candidate | Party | Postal votes | EVM votes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | M.ABDUL WAHAB | DMK | 1,451 | 78,293 | 79,744 |
| 2 | MARIA JOHN | TVK | 995 | 64,944 | 65,939 |
| 3 | SYED SULTHAN SAMSUDEEN | AIADMK | 473 | 19,259 | 19,732 |
| 4 | SANKARA NARAYANAN ALIAS SARAN | NTK | 247 | 10,218 | 10,465 |
| 5 | NOTA | NOTA | 47 | 804 | 851 |
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.
DMK has held Palayamkottai in every cycle since 2011, but the margin has narrowed sharply from 52,141 in 2021 to 13,805 in 2026.
About Palayamkottai
Palayamkottai is the cantonment-side twin of Tirunelveli town, separated from it only by the Tamirabarani river bridge. The constituency takes in the old garrison built around St Xavier's Cathedral, the Manonmaniam Sundaranar university campus and a dense belt of Christian and Muslim trader households along Trivandrum Road. St Xavier's College, founded in 1923, and St John's school give the seat one of the densest education footprints in southern Tamil Nadu, while the Palayamkottai Central Prison anchors the older administrative quarter. The mix of mission-school graduates, salaried minorities and the legal community around the district court has kept this an unbroken DMK seat from 2011 onwards.
Travel from Palayamkottai
Walk the Cathedral compound and St Xavier's College quadrangle, cross the bridge to the halwa shops on East Car Street, and end at the Tamirabarani steps below Nellaiappar temple at sunset. Day-trippers usually pair Palayamkottai with Courtallam falls 60 km west or the Kuttralam-Tenkasi temple loop.
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