A new seat two decades ago, Kolathur is now Stalin's safest ground

Tamil Nadu will go to the polls in a single phase on April 23, with counting set for May 4. Among the key contests in the state is Chief Minister MK Stalin’s bastion, Kolathur, a constituency created after the 2008 delimitation exercise. Here, he will face the AIADMK’s P Santhanakrishnan.

Since 2011, Kolathur has not disappointed the ruling DMK. What began as a tight contest has widened into a comfortable lead over time. Stalin’s winning margin has grown sharply across three elections, from 1.9 per cent in 2011 to 40.6 per cent in 2021!

Why Kolathur?

In 2011, Stalin decided to shift from Thousand Lights, a constituency he first won in 1989 and thereafter dominated for over two decades, losing only once in 1991. The decision came at a time when the opposition had squeezed the DMK’s victory margin from 46.8 per cent in 1996 to just 2.3 per cent in 2006.

According to reports from the time, Stalin chose to play it safe by shifting to Kolathur, a less urban seat compared to Thousand Lights, to avoid potential backlash over the 2G spectrum controversy.

The 2011 result validated this change. The DMK won only 23 seats across the state, and in Chennai, where it had maintained an upper hand over the years, it was reduced to just two seats: Kolathur and Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni.

Stalin’s political journey began well before Kolathur. He established the DMK’s youth wing in his early days and secured his first electoral win in 1989. In Thousand Lights, he spent decades building a base over there. However, the road became bumpy over time, from comfortable victories in the early years to tighter contests later.

By the mid-2000s, shrinking margins signalled that the seat was no longer as secure as it once had been. Kolathur was not just a newly carved constituency after delimitation; it became the space where a fluctuating support base finally turned into a more stable and dependable one for the DMK chief.