The senior leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is currently trailing in Puducherry’s Karaikal South constituency as counting of votes for the 30-seat Puducherry Assembly continues.
BJP’s M Arul Murugan currently leads the seat, according to the latest PValue data.
Nazim is a senior DMK leader in Puducherry and has served multiple terms as a Member of the Puducherry Legislative Assembly and has also held key ministerial and opposition leadership roles.
background
Nazim is the son of Hameed Marikayar and started his political career in 1983. He built his political base in Karaikal district and became one of the prominent DMK leaders in Puducherry politics over several decades.
He was first elected to the Puducherry Legislative Assembly from North Karaikal in 1990 and went on to win the seat again in 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006. During the DMK government in 1996, he served as Health Minister, where he held key public health responsibilities.
In 2006, he became the Leader of the Opposition in the Puducherry Legislative Assembly. After constituency reorganization, he contested from the newly formed South Karaikal Assembly constituency in 2011 and won.
In the 2016 election, he narrowly lost by just 20 votes, making it one of the closest contests in the constituency’s history. However, he made a strong comeback in the 2021 elections, defeating the same opponent.
About the electoral district
South Karaikal Assembly constituency is a Legislative Assembly constituency in the Union Territory of Puducherry. It falls under Karaikal district and is part of Puducherry Lok Sabha constituency. Established in 1964, the seat has approximately 31,891 voters and is a general (unreserved) electoral district.
From the 1970s until the early 2000s, leaders like S. Ramasamy (AIADMK/Independent) and A V Subramanian (Congress) are in different phases of the constituency. In 2006, VK Ganapathy of the Puducherry Munnetra Congress won the seat, marking another political shift.
What happened in the previous elections?
In the 2011 Puducherry Legislative Assembly elections, AMH Nazeem won the seat as the DMK candidate, defeating VK Ganapathy by about 1,500 votes. This marked the DMK’s entry into the modern political stage of the constituency.
In the 2016 elections, the seat went to AIADMK, who defeated AMH Nazim by a very narrow margin of just 20 votes, making it one of the closest contests in the history of the constituency.
In the 2021 elections, AMH Nazeem made a strong comeback, defeating KAU Asana and achieving a dominant victory with over 70% of the votes. This result restored the DMK’s control over the constituency
