176. Pattukkottai

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam held the seat; the winning margin narrowed from 14.3% to 7.5%.

• Won on a lower shareIts own vote share fell 8.7% — it held because the rest of the vote was more divided.
• New challengerTamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) finished second with 28.4% — it did not contest here in 2021.
• Vote fragmentedThe top two took only 64.3% between them, down from 75.0% — the field split more ways.

Written from the constituency figures by a fixed set of rules — no language model.