Till 2004, the Thiruchendur constituency comprises the Tiruchendur and Sattankulam Assembly segments in Tuticorin district; Nanguneri, Radhapuram and Cheranmahadevi in Tirunelveli district and the Kanyakumari segment of Kanyakumari district.

The constituency was a Congress "fortress" in the years gone by. The party candidates, D. Ganapathy and T.T. Krishnamachari, were elected in 1957 and 1962. However, in 1971, it went in favour of the DMK's M.S. Sivasamy, who defeated the Swathanthra Party candidate, M. Mathiyas, by a wafer-thin margin of 26 votes.

The emergence of the Congress strongman, K.T. Kosalram from Arumuganeri, who lost the 1967 battle to the Swathanthra Party candidate, Santhosham, virtually turned this segment into a Congress bastion after he won the 1977 and 1980 elections. Old timers recall that the Sethu Samudhram canal issue was raised in Parliament by K. T. Kosalram, Congress MP from Tiruchendur in 1977, 1980 and 1984

He became more popular, collecting over Rs. 1 crore from farmers for construction of the Manimuthar dam, following an appeal by the then Chief Minister, K. Kamaraj. During his hectic days for the welfare of the society, K.T. Kosalram was bringing out Dina Sethi, from Purasawalkam espousing Nadar causes and other general public welfare causes. A school in Tuticorin has been named after him and Sathankulam Busstand has been named after his services.