DMK’s Periyakaruppan moves Madras HC to prevent TVK MLA from participating in vote of confidence

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader and former Minster K.R. Periyakaruppan, who lost by one vote during the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly elections 2026, has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court to prevent his opponent Seenivasa Sethupathy of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) from participating in the trust vote to be held in the State Assembly on or before May 13, 2026.

A summer vacation Bench of Justices L. Victoria Gowri and N. Senthilkumar is scheduled to take up the writ petition for an urgent hearing during a special sitting on Sunday (May 10, 2026) since the petitioner had contended that the votes cast in his Tirupattur constituency in Sivaganga district were not recounted properly and hence the elected candidate must not be allowed to participate in any legislative process.

The judges will first decide the maintainability of the writ petition before going into the merits of the case.

The case assumes significance in the light of Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar’s decision to administer oath of office to Chief Minister designate C. Joseph Vijay on Sunday (May 10, 2026) on the condition that he must seek the vote of confidence of the Legislative Assembly on or before May 13, 2026. Any court order preventing Mr. Sethupathy from participating in the proceedings would reduce the strength of TVK by one vote in the House.

In 2021, Mr. Periyakaruppan had won the Tirupattur seat with a comfortable margin of 18% against Marudhu Alaguraj of AIADMK. However, in the 2026 polls, he had a neck-to-neck fight against the TVK candidate and was leading by 30 votes till the end of the penultimate round of counting.

However, after the final round, Mr. Sethupathy was declared to have won by a single vote.

Election officials said the TVK candidate secured 83,365 votes against Mr. Periyakaruppan’s 83,364 votes. Though a recounting of votes was also held due to the wafer thin margin, the writ petitioner questioned the process and contended that the postal votes were not counted properly. He inisisted that the video footage of the re-verification process must be produced in court to find out if it was conducted as per the Handbook for the Returning Officers.

Pending adjudication of his main writ petition, the former Minister has also sought an interim direction restraining the TVK candidate, declared as a winner in Tirupattur constituency, from participating “in any legislative process in the 17th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.”

If the court grants the interim order, the TVK MLA may not be able to participate in the vote of confidence to be conducted in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.