CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Monday rejected an election petition filed by former minister and DMK leader KR Periyakaruppan seeking to declare void the victory of TVK MLA R Seenivasa Sethupathi by one vote in Tirupattur Assembly segment in Sivaganga district in the 2026 polls.
Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan, while allowing a petition filed by Sethupathi for rejecting the election petition, dismissed the one filed by Periyakaruppan. Sethupathi had secured 83,375 votes while Periyakaruppan got 83,374 votes losing by a single vote.
In May, the DMK leader filed a writ petition against the Election Commission of India and the Returning Officer of Tirupattur constituency, alleging that one postal vote was wrongly sent to a constituency with the same name in Tirupattur district, and that the RO concerned had cancelled the vote, instead of sending it back to the actual constituency.
In an interim order, the court had then admitted the writ petition and ordered the winner not to participate in voting in the Assembly. However, the interim order was struck down by the Supreme Court.
In this background, Periyakaruppan filed the election petition seeking to nullify the victory of Seenivasa Sethupathi, to take back the postal vote which was sent to the wrong constituency and conduct recounting.
However, Sethupathi’s counsel denied the allegation and said the postal vote sent to the other constituency had unambiguous mention of the constituency name and number and it did not belong to the one in Sivaganga district.