Congress national president, K. Kamaraj faced an unexpected setback in the 1967 election in Virudhunagar — defeated by a young DMK student leader, P. Seenivasan, by a narrow margin of 1,285 votes. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

In Tamil Nadu’s intensely personality-centric politics, the electorate has repeatedly demonstrated that no leader, however towering, is beyond scrutiny. From the early years of Dravidian politics to more recent decades, voters have not hesitated to defeat stalwarts, even Chief Ministers.

The first such instance dates back to the watershed 1967 Assembly elections, which fundamentally altered the State’s political landscape. For the first time in independent India, a regional party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) came to power, dislodging the Indian National Congress. Since then no national party, independently, has been able to gain the confidence of the people.

Published – April 15, 2026 06:00 am IST