CHENNAI: CM Stalin lost his Kolathur seat to TVK’s VS Babu by a margin of 9,121 votes. With the defeat, MK Stalin becomes the third sitting Chief Minister to lose in his own constituency in the State.
M Bhaktavatsalam was swept away from Sriperumbudur by the historic DMK wave that ended the Congress rule in the State.
In 1996, J Jayalalithaa lost in Bargur as voters delivered a crushing verdict, reducing the AIADMK to merely four seats in the State following major public backlash and corruption allegations, followed by the extravagant wedding organised for her foster son, VN Sudhakaran, in 1995.
M K Stalin, on the other hand, has contested from Kolathur since the constituency was carved out in 2011.
He had won here three consecutive times, each time by a larger margin, culminating in a 70,000-vote landslide in 2021. The first time, he won it by a whisker of 2,734 votes against AIADMK's Saidai Duraisamy.
Before the constituency was formed through delimitation, he contested in 1989, 1996 and 2001 from the Thousand Lights constituency. He made his electoral debut in the Thousand Lights constituency in 1984 and lost. He was elected from there in 1989, 1996 and 2001. However, he lost in 1991.
Interestingly, in 2006, when Stalin contested from Thousand Lights, VS Babu, the TVK’s candidate, who has now managed to take him down with the weight of Vijay’s brand, contested on the same DMK ticket in neighbouring Purasaiwalkam and won.
During 2011, Babu, who was with the DMK then, worked for the victory of Stalin in Kolathur, which was carved out from Purasaiwalkam.
He was sidelined at the party after PK Sekarbabu gained prominence in the region. Following this, he joined AIADMK; however, he did not manage to gain much prominence in the party.
He then joined the newly-formed TVK and was fielded against MK Stalin.
Speaking to reporters, Babu said the mandate was for the party and not for him personally, and that ‘Thalapathy’ Vijay was the sole reason for the victory. He also assured that he would not take “even a single rupee” and would serve the constituency to the best of his ability.
Over the last five years, several big ticket projects were rolled out in Kolathur including an ornamental fish market complex worth Rs 50 crore, a dialysis centre worth Rs 12 crore and an upgrade to the arts and science college in Kolathur at a cost of Rs 31 crore. The popular ‘Mudhalvar Padaippagam’ co-working space was launched first in Kolathur in 2024 before it was replicated in other parts of the city.
DMK Patriarch, M Karunanidhi, who is also Stalin’s father, holds the distinction of never losing in an election.
Even in the 1991 election, which was held in the backdrop of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, where the DMK faced a drubbing and won just two seats, one of them was Karunanidhi, winning the Harbour constituency by a thin margin.
Stalin’s loss is also a big setback to Sekarbabu, who is the DMK’s in-charge for the region.