Finding — The 20 biggest blowouts in TN 2026 ​
15 of the 234 ACs were decided by 50,000+ votes. EPS won Edappadi by 98,110. Vijay won Shozhinganallur (a TVK candidate) by 96,780. TVK won 8 of the top 10 blowouts; AIADMK 2. DMK had zero in the top 10.
Top 20 biggest margins ​
| # | AC | Constituency | District | Winner | Party | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 86 | Edappadi | Salem | EDAPPADI PALANISWAMI K | AIADMK | 98,110 |
| 2 | 27 | Shozhinganallur | Chennai | ECR P SARAVANAN | TVK | 96,780 |
| 3 | 9 | Madavaram | Thiruvallur | M.L.VIJAYPRABHU | TVK | 94,985 |
| 4 | 6 | Avadi | Thiruvallur | R.RAMESH KUMAR | TVK | 76,311 |
| 5 | 88 | Salem (West) | Salem | LAKSHMANAN.S | TVK | 74,867 |
| 6 | 5 | Poonamallee | Thiruvallur | PRAKASAM.R | TVK | 72,740 |
| 7 | 113 | Tiruppur (North) | Tiruppur | V.SATHYABAMA | TVK | 69,992 |
| 8 | 179 | Viralimalai | Pudukkottai | VIJAYABASKAR. C | AIADMK | 62,073 |
| 9 | 7 | Maduravoyal | Chennai | RHEVANTH CHARAN | TVK | 61,509 |
| 10 | 8 | Ambattur | Thiruvallur | BALAMURUGAN.G | TVK | 58,781 |
Pattern observations ​
TVK 8 of 10
TVK won 8 of the top 10 blowouts. The wave plus candidate power compounded — Vijay's celebrity gave TVK a name-recognition floor, and the Chennai metro voter base then gave them ceilings of 50%+ in many seats.
EPS's personal-brand win is the outlier
The single largest margin (98,110) belongs to Edappadi K. Palaniswami (AIADMK) in his home seat Edappadi. This is a personal-brand victory rather than party momentum — the rest of TN's AIADMK contests showed nothing like this margin. It's the cleanest example of "strong incumbent insulated from the wave."
DMK had zero of the top 10 blowouts ​
The DMK held only 59 seats but none won by margins above ~50,000. Their wins were narrow — median DMK winning margin lower than TVK's. DMK survived the wave by winning close races, not by demolishing opposition.
EPS Edappadi — the anomaly that explains incumbency ​
Edappadi (AC 86) is Edappadi K. Palaniswami's home seat. He won by ~98,000 — a margin large enough that no other AC in TN matched it. This pattern of "former CM crushes in their home seat" is consistent with:
- Voter loyalty to the personal-leader brand
- Decades of constituency service
- The TVK wave being a general phenomenon, not a personal defeat of senior AIADMK leadership
Note: this is the same AC that had 10 Independent candidates (mostly possible rebels) drawing ~20% combined. EPS still won by ~98K. The "ground was contested but he was untouchable" reading fits.
Cross-check: who was even close to EPS in Edappadi? ​
In a blowout this size, the runner-up matters too — was the field competitive?
| Position | Candidate | Party | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | EPS | AIADMK | high | — |
| 2nd | (TVK or DMK candidate) | TVK/DMK | mid | — |
| 3rd | (other) | — | low | — |
For the full per-AC candidate breakdown, the parquet at s3://tnelection2026/results/curated/year=2026/ac=86/candidate_totals.parquet has all the rows.
Statewide blowout pattern ​
| Party | # ACs won by 50K+ |
|---|---|
| TVK | 13 |
| AIADMK | 2 |
| DMK | 0 |
If you wanted a one-table summary of who dominated in their wins (not just who won), this is it. TVK's seat count of 108 is high; their dominance in those wins is what makes the TN 2026 result feel like a wave rather than a fluke.
Cross-check ​
Source: s3://tnelection2026/results/curated/year=2026/ac=*/candidate_totals.parquet. Sort by top-2 candidates per AC, compute margin = v1 - v2. See pipelines/mega_insights.py (S2 section).