Saroja, who was the lone woman MP from Tamil nadu in 1998 too, was returned from Rasipuram where she defeated her PMK rival S Udayarasu by a margin of over 38,000 votes. In the 1998 polls, she had defeated the DMK's K Kandasamy.

The other two women candidates, both nominated by the DMK, lost. Bavani Rajendran was defeated by former IAS officer and AIADMK candidate K Malaichamy in Ramanathapuram, while Geetha Jeevan (Tirunelveli) lost to the AIADMK's former Assembly speaker P H Pandian.