Madras High Court rejects election petition against victory of Tamil Nadu Minister Sengottaiyan

The Madras High Court on Tuesday (September 15, 2026) rejected an election petition filed against the victory of Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) leader K.A. Sengottaiyan from Gobichettipalayam Assembly constituency this year.

Justice G.K. Ilanthiraiyan allowed an application filed by the Minister to reject the election petition filed by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) candidate V.B. Prabhu who had secured the third position in the polls and lost by a margin of 26,280 votes in the election.

Mr. Sengottaiyan had quit the AIADMK and contested the elections as a TVK candidate this year. He had secured 82,612 votes as against his nearest rival candidate N. Nallasivam of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) who could manage only 65,992 votes.

Mr. Prabhu had got 56,232 votes. Though the third-place holder had challenged the Minister’s victory on multiple grounds, the judge accepted the argument of the returned candidate that no sufficient materials had been placed before the court requiring the conduct of a full fledged trial and that the petitioner deserves to be rejected at the threshold.

After this year’s Legislative Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, an unsually high number of 54 election petitions were filed in the High Court challenging the victory of the elected representatives under various provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy of the High Court had on August 18, 2026 rejected the election petition that had challenged the victory of TVK MLA N. Elaliyaraja from Uthangarai constituency. C. Geetha, whose nomination had been rejected, had filed that election petition.

The judge found that the petitioner’s nomination was rejected because her name had not been included in the electoral rolls and that a writ petition filed by her to restore her name in the electoral rolls and accept her nomination had been dismissed by a Division Bench of the High Court on April 7, 2026.

After holding that the petitioner had slept over her rights without taking steps to get her name included in the electoral rolls within the time limit stipulated by the Election Commission of India, the judge also ruled that her petition does not disclose any cause of action to challenge the victory of the MLA.

Thereafter, on September 8, 2026, Justice Chakravarthy had rejected yet another election petition filed by Thoppu Venkatachalam alias N.D. Venkatachalam, who had contested as a DMK candidate but quit the party after the polls, challenging the victory of S.

Jayakumar from Perundurai constituency. Mr. Jayakumar had won the seat, by a margin of 9,393 votes, as an AIADMK candidate. He had secured 70,302 votes against 60,609 votes garnered by the election petitioner but submitted his resignation to Legislative Assembly Speaker J.C.D.

Prabhakar on May 25, 2026, before joining the TVK.