Court Setback For MK Stalin Over Poll Defeat In Stronghold Kolathur

DMK chief MK Stalin suffered a setback on Thursday when the Madras High Court dismissed his plea seeking 100 per cent counting of VVPAT slips in the Kolathur Assembly constituency, where he suffered a surprise defeat to TVK's VS Babu in the 2026 Assembly elections. Stalin has also sought the invalidation of Babu's election and a declaration that he be elected from the constituency.Babu defeated Stalin by 8,795 votes, polling 82,997 votes against Stalin's 74,202. Stalin, who had won Kolathur in three successive elections since the constituency was formed in 2011, finished second this time.The Election Commission had challenged the maintainability of Stalin's writ petition. It argued that an election result can be questioned only through an election petition under the Representation of the People Act, and that Stalin ought to have followed that route within the prescribed time.The dispute centres on the post-election verification of EVMs.