# DMK chief Stalin moves Madras HC, seeks to nullify Kolathur election result 2026-08-24T22:41:07+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets DMK president M K Stalin has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court seeking to nullify the election of TVK candidate V S Babu from the Kolathur Assembly seat and declare himself the winner. Stalin, who lost by 8,795 votes in the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, alleges grave irregularities in the EVM and VVPAT verification process conducted after the results. The petition says the District Election Officer declared the verification successful on August 5 despite his authorised representative, senior advocate N R Elango, flagging multiple failures. These include a VVPAT unit displaying an error during a mock poll, a ballot unit unable to detect the control unit, and missing technical failure reports from engineers. Stalin has also filed a separate petition challenging the constitutional validity of parts of the ECI's Standard Operating Procedure for EVM verification. The court is yet to list the petitions for hearing. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Both outlets report the same facts: Stalin lost by 8,795 votes, sought 5% EVM verification per the Supreme Court's 2024 order, and now claims the verification process was flawed. Rediff.com presents this as a straight petition report with no framing beyond the allegations. The Hindu adds the constitutional maintainability argument, Article 329(b), that Stalin preemptively addresses, and reports a second petition challenging the ECI's SOP itself. This extra detail frames the legal challenge as broader than one constituency. The comparison allows a reader to see that Stalin is not just contesting a single result but laying groundwork to question the EC's procedural legitimacy. The Madras HC's ruling on the maintainability and the SOP challenge, likely in coming weeks, will determine whether this becomes a one-off or a systemic test. ## Coverage Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral - rediff.com (neutral report) Reports the petition and allegations without commentary, no editorial slant evident on this story - thehindu.com (neutral report) Adds the constitutional maintainability argument and a second SOP challenge, fuller legal framing but still neutral in tone This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above. Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources. Last updated 2026-08-24T23:46:49+00:00. Tags: DMK, EVM, Kolathur, M.K. Stalin, Madras High Court, VVPAT Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/stalin-challenges-kolathur-election-result-in-madras-hc/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/stalin-challenges-kolathur-election-result-in-madras-hc/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/