Chennai: Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) candidate V.S. Babu has emerged as a major talking point in the Tamil Nadu Assembly election by defeating Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in the Kolathur constituency.

VS Babu, a former DMK legislator who represented the Purasawalkam Assembly constituency in 2006, had recently joined TVK.

Babu defeated Stalin by more than 9,000 votes after 22 rounds of counting of votes, according to the data available on the Election Commission website.

Babu received more than 82,000 votes while Stalin received around 73,000. AIADMK's R Santhanakrishnan is placed in the third position with 14,000 votes.

Kolathur, a constituency Stalin has represented since 2011, was earlier a stronghold for the DMK leader, who won the seat in 2021 by a margin of 70,384 votes. However, this time, the battle has tightened significantly as the count progresses.

“Kolathur is a seat that Stalin, the DMK president, has held since 2011. In 2021, he had won the seat by a margin of 70,384 votes against AIADMK's Aadhi Rajaram, who is now contesting the Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni constituency and is currently leading over Stalin's son, Udhayanidhi Stalin.”

Babu, who currently serves as the joint general secretary of TVK, is among the emerging faces of the party founded by actor Vijay. “Babu is currently the joint general secretary of debutant TVK, which was launched by actor Vijay to take on the DMK and AIADMK.”

The strong performance of TVK has added to the party’s rising momentum across the state. “TVK workers celebrated their lead seats across the state with Vijay's 'whistle podu song', ringing the party's symbol between their lips in big celebrations.”

“Actor-politician Vijay appears to be in waiting to create a new history in the electoral politics of Tamil Nadu with no parallels as his party, the TVK is leading in 109 constituencies out of the total 234 Assembly segments as counting of votes polled in the April 23 elections was on across the state.”

According to Election Commission data, several senior DMK leaders are also trailing. “According to Election Commission data, 15 ministers including DMK general secretary Duraimurugan, Thangam Thennarasu, TRB Rajaa, Ma Subramanian, PK Sekar Babu, EV Velu, KN Nehru, Getha Jeevan and KKSSR Ramachandran are trailing behind and some by huge margins.”

At the time of the latest update, “When data was last updated, the party was leading in 109 seats. The AIADMK and DMK were ahead in 63 and 40 seats, respectively.”

If TVK crosses the majority mark of 118 seats, it would mark an unprecedented political shift in Tamil Nadu’s history, with the emerging trends placing V.S. Babu at the centre of one of the biggest electoral upsets in the state’s recent political narrative.