Nilakkottai (SC) Assembly constituency, located in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu, forms part of the Dindigul Lok Sabha constituency. The seat is reserved for Scheduled Caste candidate.
According to the 2011 Census estimates, about 70.45 per cent of the population is rural while 29.55 per cent is urban. Scheduled Castes account for 27.02 per cent of the population and Scheduled Tribes about 0.76 per cent.
In the 2021 Assembly election, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam secured victory in the constituency with S Thenmozhi winning 91,461 votes, or 49.50 per cent of the vote share. She defeated the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s K. Murugavelrajan, who secured 63,843 votes, giving the AIADMK a margin of 27,618 votes, or about 14.95 per cent of the total votes cast.
Historically, Nilakkottai has witnessed a mix of parties winning the seat over the years. S Thenmozhi of the AIADMK first won the constituency in 2006. In 2011, A Ramasamy of Puthiya Tamilagam won the seat. The AIADMK returned to power in 2016 with R Thangathurai, but he was later disqualified in 2017 along with several other AIADMK MLAs after withdrawing support to the state government. This led to a by-election in 2019, which was won by AIADMK’s S Thenmozhi. She retained the seat again in the 2021 Assembly election and is the current MLA from Nilakkottai.