For the first time in the past three decades, DMK leader M.K. Stalin has faced a humiliating defeat. He has lost to V.S. babu, a former disgruntled DMK worker, who moved to the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) just a month before the election notification.
Babu who once worked as the election in-charge for Stalin in 2011 has trounced the CM by polling 9,192 votes more than his former boss. Babu secured 88,180 votes, as against Stalin’s 72,988 votes. Babu who was the Purasawalkam MLA between 2006 and 2011 had to concede the newly created Kolathur seat to Stalin after the delimitation then. Jayalalithaa, then fielded AIADMK strong man Saidai Duraisamy against Stalin who reduced the margin to less than 3,000 votes. In the 2011 elections, Stalin who moved from his traditional Thousand Lights constituency to Kolathur won against Duraisamy. And again in 2016 and 2021 the margins he won by 37,730 and 70,384 votes, respectively. AIADMK had then fielded J.C.D. Prabhakar and Aadi Rajaram against Stalin. The constituency turned into Stalin and DMK’s bastion.
However, Babu who was questioned by the leadership for the lowest margin moved to the AIADMK in 2016 only to switch to the TVK in February this year. Babu was replaced by DMK’s P.K. Shekhar Babu in 2011 as the north chennai district secretary.
But DMK and Stalin have lost Kolathur. Thanks to the ripple effect of Vijay’s contest in Perambur, the neighbouring constituency. In fact the very first day after filing his nomination for the Perambur constituency, had to skip his campaign at Kolathur as crowd surged and also because of a dip in police security.
A sitting chief minister losing is not new in Tamil Nadu. In the 1960s, A. Kamaraj lost and in the 1990s even Jayalalithaa lost. It seems the people had an anger which was silent and unpredictable by the psephologists. People were apparently looking for a new face and they did not trust both the dravidian parties which ruled the state for the past five decades.
