Chennai, Sept 8:
The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed an election petition filed by former DMK candidate Thoppu Venkatachalam challenging the election of AIADMK’s S. Jayakumar from the Perundurai Assembly constituency.
Venkatachalam had challenged Jayakumar’s victory in the 2026 Assembly election. Jayakumar, who contested on an AIADMK ticket, was declared elected from Perundurai by a margin of 9,693 votes.
Following Jayakumar’s subsequent resignation as MLA and his decision to join the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) after supporting the TVK government, Venkatachalam’s election petition remained pending before the High Court.
Jayakumar had filed a petition seeking dismissal of the election case. Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, who heard the matter, accepted Jayakumar’s plea and held that the election petition did not disclose any legally permissible grounds to sustain the challenge. The court consequently dismissed Venkatachalam’s petition.
The development assumes significance as a separate case concerning the Perundurai by-election had earlier resulted in an interim stay by a Division Bench headed by the Chief Justice, on a plea seeking to prevent the Election Commission from announcing the bypoll while the election petition was pending.
Venkatachalam had also recently quit the DMK, adding another political dimension to the developments surrounding the constituency.