Sankarapuram
Sankarapuram — AIADMK's Rakesh flips DMK seat by 3,440 votes
AIADMK's R. Rakesh took Sankarapuram — a Kallakurichi seat at the foot of the Kalvarayan hills that DMK's T. Udhayasuriyan had held twice — by just 3,440 votes, with Udhayasuriyan as runner-up. Udhayasuriyan's earlier wins were emphatic: 45,963 votes in 2021 and 14,528 in 2016. AIADMK's P. Mohan held the seat in 2011 (12,198 votes); DMK's A. Angaiyarkanni won in 2006 by 2,466. Pre-2008, T. Udhayasuriyan (DMK) had won the seat in 1996 and PMK's P. Kasampu in 2001. The 2026 result is the seat's narrowest finish since the 2008 delimitation, and ends a four-cycle DMK winning streak in the post-delim era when Udhayasuriyan is on the ballot.
Top 5 candidates
| # | Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RAKESH R | AIADMK | 80,250 | 34.45% |
| 2 | UDHAYASURIYAN T | DMK | 76,810 | 32.98% |
| 3 | JAGADESAN A | TVK | 67,624 | 29.03% |
| 4 | RAMESH K | NTK | 5,567 | 2.39% |
| 5 | RAMACHANDIRAN M | IND | 677 | 0.29% |
Postal ballot breakdown
Postal-ballot leader differs from overall winner. DMK UDHAYASURIYAN T led postal ballots (1,169), but AIADMK RAKESH R won the seat overall (80,250).
| # | Candidate | Party | Postal votes | EVM votes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UDHAYASURIYAN T | DMK | 1,169 | 75,641 | 76,810 |
| 2 | RAKESH R | AIADMK | 881 | 79,369 | 80,250 |
| 3 | JAGADESAN A | TVK | 517 | 67,107 | 67,624 |
| 4 | RAMESH K | NTK | 58 | 5,509 | 5,567 |
| 5 | NOTA | NOTA | 12 | 371 | 383 |
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.
T. Udhayasuriyan has been Sankarapuram's defining politician for 30 years — he won the older pre-delim seat in 1996, lost a 1,018-vote heart-breaker to PMK's P. Kasampu in 2001, lost again to AIADMK's P. Mohan in 2011, then took the seat back in 2016 and 2021 before AIADMK's R. Rakesh flipped it in 2026 by 3,440 votes.
About Sankarapuram
Sankarapuram — AC 79 — sits in the southern reaches of Kallakurichi district at the foot of the Kalvarayan range, the Eastern Ghats spur that climbs toward 4,000 feet of tribal-belt forest. The constituency has existed since well before the 2008 delimitation — DMK's T. Udhayasuriyan won here in 1996, PMK's P. Kasampu in 2001 — and Udhayasuriyan returned to win two consecutive cycles in 2016 and 2021. The 2026 result reverses that arc: AIADMK's R. Rakesh has flipped the seat by a 3,440-vote margin.
Sankarapuram & the Kalvarayan Foothills
Sankarapuram is where the Kallakurichi plain runs into the Kalvarayan range — a less-known Eastern Ghats stretch where Malayali tribal villages still farm millets at 3,500 feet. Drive up the ghat road to the Megam Falls trail and the Periyakalrayan view-point, then back down to Manimuthar's reservoir for an evening picnic on the dam embankment. The Vriddhachalam Shiva sthalam and the Pennaiyar's slow bend at Pennadam both make easy half-day add-ons.
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