A.M.H. Nazeem who won the Puducherry Assembly from Karaikal South has been elected as the leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s legislature party. The party also elected A. Senthil Kumar, who won from Bahour, as the deputy leader of DMK in the Assembly.

With five members in the house, DMK was set to get the Principal Opposition party status in the Puducherry Assembly. Mr. Nazeem, one of the senior leaders of DMK in the Union Territory, first become a nominated legislator in 1990. Then he got elected to the Assembly in 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2021 from Karaikal region. He was also a Minister holding the health portfolio under a DMK government in 1996 in the Union Territory.

In the 2026 elections, Mr. Nazeem won the seat defeating his immediate rival A.V.S. Sakthivel Prabu by a margin of 5,862 votes. In the previous Assembly too, the Principal Opposition party post was held by the DMK.