The Nilgiris Constituency witnessed a change in leadership this time around with the DMK coming to power. The Alliance with the Congress at the centre and the reprofiling of the constituency to SC, and the replacement of Thondamuthur with Bhavanisagar made it more favourable for the DMK who had a sitting minister Mr.A.Raja to contest from this seat on the DMK- Congress front. The seat has traditionally been a Congress strong hold with the badaga community in the Nilgiris playing prominence. The main communities in this constituency are Badagas, Vokkaligars and Kongu Vellalars. The first election that the KNMK (Kongu Peravai) who bagged 5% of the entire vote bank. This is quite a step forward for a first time appearance. However, the decision of the DMDK not to forge an alliance had secured a 11%, a figure lower than their estimates. The traditionally ADMK towns of Avinashi and Mettupalayam on its own had higher vote totals for ADMK. This situation was the opposite in the other constituencies. The replacement of Bhavanisagar instead of Thondamuthur was also a factor in the vote balance. Mr.A.Raja secured a win with a margin of 86021 votes against the MDMK candidate Mr.C.Krishnan. There were a total of 14 candidates, of which only 7 represented a party. The independents all put together secured 4.1% of the total votes and the number of independents had grown from 3 in 2004 to 7 in 2009 showing an active interest of independent candidates in the election. The Nilgiris seat has almost always been a congress stronghold and with the alliance equation has been allotted to the DMK. Given the candidate (DMK) contesting and profile, there perhaps could not have been too many different ideas of which party should contest from this seat. Ultimately, the result was favourable for the alliance.

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