Elections 98

State:	Tamil Nadu
Constituency:	Chidambaram (SC)
Total Votes Polled:	684155
Winner: PMK	Elumalai alias Ezhilmalai R.	305372
Runner Up: DMK	Ganesan V	297417
Margin: 7955 (3%)

Elections 96

State:	Tamilnadu
Constituency:	Chidambaram (SC)
Total Votes Polled:	725700
Winner: DMK	Ganesan V	336164
Runner Up: PMK	Elumalai R	159898
Margin: 176266 (925.53%)

After last winning from here in 1962, the next time the Congress proved lucky was in 1984. In the meantime the constituency went both the DMK and AIADMK ways. P Vallalperuman, who was elected on the Congress ticket three consecutive times in 1984, 1989 and in 1991, ran into the DMK's V Ganesan who won the seat for his party by a margin of 127,000 votes. The runner-up was the Pattali Makkal Katchi's R Elumalai, the sitting MP Vallalperuman coming third with 144,478 votes.