In a stunning upset, senior DMK leader, State Co-operatives Minister KR Periyakaruppan, lost the Tiruppattur Assembly seat by a single vote in the Tamil Nadu elections.
According to data by the Election Commission, 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.
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.
(With inputs from PTI)