One vote upended veteran DMK leader K R Periyakaruppan in Tiruppattur

In Tiruppattur, KR Periyakaruppan lost by one vote to Seenivasa Sethupathy R, marking a dramatic upset as C Joseph Vijay’s party surge reshaped state politics

Tiruppattur: In a dramatic electoral upset, senior DMK leader and State Minister for Co-operatives KR Periyakaruppan lost the Tiruppattur Assembly seat by a razor-thin margin of just one vote in the Tamil Nadu elections.

Election Commission data revealed that Seenivasa Sethupathy R of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) secured victory with 83,375 votes, while Periyakaruppan finished with 83,374 votes. The contest witnessed a tense finish; Periyakaruppan was leading by 30 votes at the end of the penultimate round before the final tally shifted in favour of the TVK candidate.

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The defeat of the sitting minister highlights the surge of actor Vijay’s TVK, which emerged as the single largest party with 108 seats in a historic debut that disrupted the state’s traditional bipolar politics. BJP’s KC Thirumaran finished a distant third in the constituency with 29,054 votes.

The result in Tiruppattur remains one of the closest in India’s electoral history, emphasising the decisive impact of individual ballots.