[2] The Cauvery water crisis, affecting agriculture in the area, remains high on the agenda in Nagapattinam Lok Sabha constituency.

[7] In the 1962 Indian general election Congress fielded Gopalsamy Thenkondar as its candidate in Nagapattinam.

Thenkondar won the seat, obtaining 45.98% of the vote, defeating C. Kandasamy Thevar of CPI (36.74%), A.M. Mytheen Sayabu of the Muslim League (16.07%) and independent candidate Mohamed Cassim Rowther (1.21%).

[16] Ahead of the 1977 Indian general election CPI was allocated Nagapattinam as part of the Congress-AIADMK seat sharing alliance.

[18] There were only two candidates in the fray, S.G. Murugaiyan of CPI and Thazhai M. Karunanidhi of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

[21] A mass protest was held in Mannargudi after the killing, CPI claimed around a 100,000 people took part in the rally.

[23][24] In the 1980 Indian general election two candidates contested the Nagapattinam seat: the incumbent K. Murugaiyan from CPI and Thazhai M. Karunanidhi from DMK.

[27] The victory in Nagapattinam was the sole successful contest for the DMK-led front in Tamil Nadu in 1989, against 38 seats won by the AIADMK-Congress combine.

[29] Padma was the second woman to be elected to the Lok Sabha from the central districts of Tamil Nadu since Independence.

[31] Amongst the 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu, Nagapattinam had the lowest number of candidates (6).

[33] The runner-up was M. Kannivannan of Congress (24.90%), followed by V. Thambusamy of CPI(M) (15.56%), S. Rajamani of the Bharatiya Janata Party (2.39%) and two independents.

[33] In 1998 election Nagapattinam was the sole seat allocated to CPI in the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu.

[35] The main runner-up was Dr. K. Gopal of AIADMK, a medical doctor and Nannilam state legislator 1991–1996.

[37] The outcome was unexpected, as the CPI historically had strong support in the area and the backing of AIADMK in this election.

[3] In the 2004 Indian general election campaign, water shortages were a major concern in Nagapattinam.

[41] On 10 August 2007 the Delimitation Commission issued an order, retaining Nagapattinam as a constituency reserved for Scheduled Castes.

[2] In the 2009 Indian general election Nagapattinam again had the lowest number of candidates in Tamil Nadu (7).

[42] Apart from the water crisis, two key concerns in the constituency were price rises and insufficiencies in electric power supply.

Vijayan of DMK retained the seat with 48.48% of the votes, followed by M. Selvarasu of CPI with 42.20% and M. Muthukumar of DMDK with 6.73%.

[28] The party nominated G. Palanisamy, four-time state legislator of Thiruthuraipoondi assembly constituency.