MK Stalin moves Madras HC challenging TVK candidate VS Babu’s Kolathur victory, seeks recount

Legal Challenge Filed

DMK president and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday filed a petition in the Madras High Court challenging the election of TVK candidate V.S. Babu from the Kolathur Assembly constituency in the recently concluded 2026 Assembly polls. The petition seeks to declare Babu's election void and to declare Stalin as duly elected from the constituency.

According to the petition, Stalin alleged malfunctions in electronic voting machines and irregularities involving VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines, and sought a recount of votes cast in the constituency. The petition also challenges the order of the District Election Officer declaring the verification of EVMs successful.

Allegations of Procedural Lapses

Stalin's petition states that after the election results were declared, he nominated senior advocate N.R. Elango as his authorised representative for checking and verification of the burnt memory/microcontroller in the Control Unit, Ballot Unit, and VVPAT for 14 selected EVM sets pertaining to Kolathur constituency.

During the checking and verification by Elango, what the petition describes as "grave and alarming irregularities" came to light. Elango reportedly wrote to the District Election Officer informing him of these lapses, but the officer declared that the checking and verification had been carried out successfully and was completed on August 5 in accordance with prescribed procedures.

On August 6, Stalin wrote to the District Election Officer highlighting the specific failures that had come to light. He emphasised that the certificates issued by the engineer cannot be, and were not, substitutes for technical/failure reports explaining the causes of the failures. The petition argues that the impugned order was passed mechanically without responding to the clarifications sought and objections raised by his authorised representative.

Stalin has also sought a direction to the authorities to conduct 100% counting of VVPAT slips relating to Kolathur constituency and the checking and verification of all 286 machines deployed in the constituency.

According to a report by LiveLaw, Stalin had filed an application to check 14 EVMs for tampering soon after results were declared on May 7, but the verification was done much later, on July 29. The petition reportedly points out that two of the 14 EVMs stopped working during the checking, address tags on carrying cases were left blank, seals were affixed on the wrong side in some cases, and one Control Unit failed to detect a Ballot Unit with Stalin's name on it.

Election Context

TVK candidate V.S. Babu won the Kolathur seat by a margin of 8,795 votes, ending Stalin's three-time winning streak from the constituency. Following his victory, Babu credited TVK chief Vijay and his connection with the people of Kolathur. He was quoted as saying: "I have won only with our leader. Our leader's face is the face of Tamil Nadu. People wanted a change, and they have changed this."

Babu also said that his familiarity with the constituency helped him understand the concerns of local voters, while accusing Stalin of not engaging sufficiently with the people of Kolathur.

Stalin, meanwhile, thanked voters despite the defeat, noting that the DMK alliance secured more than 1.54 crore votes and lost to the winning party by a margin of 3.52 percentage points.