The Fifteenth Legislative Assembly Election was held on 16 May 2016 for the 232 seats (except

Thanjavur Thanjavur (), also Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is the 11th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian religion, art, and architecture. Most of the Gr ...

and

Aravakurichi Aravakurichi is a panchayat town and a Taluk headquarters in Karur district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. Aravakurichi is well known in Tamil Nadu as a major market for Moringa oleifera vegetable (commonly known as Drumstick). Aravakurichi ...

for which held on 26 October 2016) of the Legislative Assembly in the state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

AIADMK The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK) is an Indian Regionalism (politics), regional political party with great influence in the Federated state, state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry (union territory) ...

under J. Jayalalithaa won the elections and became the first ruling party to be re-elected in Tamil Nadu since 1984, though with a simple majority. DMK won half of the seats it contested but its allies performed poorly; notably, the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

won 16% of the seats they contested and the alliance lost due to its poor performance. The votes were counted on 19 May 2016. In the previous election in 2011, AIADMK, under the leadership of Jayalalithaa, won a thumping majority and formed the government, while

DMDK The Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (; DMDK) is an Indian regional political party in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is a Dravidian party founded by the former leader of the opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Vijayakant (Captain ...

chief

Vijayakanth Narayanan Vijayaraj Alagarswami (born 25 August 1952), better known by his stage name Vijayakanth, is an Indian politician and former actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil cinema. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Leg ...

served as the Leader of Opposition until January 2016. This was the last election that J. Jayalalithaa and M. Karunanidhi contested, as they both died in 2016 and 2018 respectively.

Background

By the requirement, state assembly election must be held at an interval of five years or whenever it is dissolved by the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

. The previous election, to the 14th legislative assembly, was conducted 13 April 2011 and its term would have naturally expired on 22 May 2016. The election to the 16th legislative assembly was organised and conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and was held in a single phase on 16 May 2016. There were over 5.79 crore voters in the electoral rolls and 65,616 polling stations in Tamil Nadu. A special purification drive of electoral rolls between 15 and 29 February 2016 in all poll-bound States including Tamil Nadu was held, in which door-to-door verification was undertaken involving booth-level agents. On 12 February 2016, Election Commission of India announced that 17 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu will have

Voter-verified paper audit trail Voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) or verified paper record (VPR) is a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballotless voting system. A VVPAT is intended as an independent verification system for voting machines designed to allow ...

(VVPAT) machines attached along with EVMs.

(VVPAT) machines will be in place in 4,000 booths.

Demographics

At the 2011 India census, Tamil Nadu had a population of 7,21,47,030. A total of 1,44,38,445 people constituting 20.01% of the total population belonged to

Scheduled Castes The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

(SC) and 7,94,697 people constituting 1.10% of the population belonged to Scheduled tribes (ST).

Other Backward Classes The Other Backward Class is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally or socially backward. It is one of several official classifications of the population of India, along with General castes, ...

(OBCs) form 68% of the population. As per the religious census of 2011, Tamil Nadu had 87.6%

Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

, 5.9%

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

, 6.1%

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

, 0.1%

Jains Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

and 0.3% following other religions or no religion.

Schedule

The elections were held on 16 May 2016, with vote counting taking place on 19 May. The elections in Kerala and Puducherry also took place on 16 May but polling in two of the Tamil Nadu constituencies was postponed due to reports of voters being bribed.

Campaign to vote

To ensure that the electorate exercise their right to vote, the Election Commission of India (ECI) launched their own campaign in Tamil Nadu. The Chief Electoral Officer for the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, Rajesh Lakhoni, utilised social media platforms by creating memes and tweets themed around films, which have a huge reach in Tamil Nadu. Additionally, the Election Commission also recruited media personalities Suriya, Ashwin and Karthik, whose campaigning videos were filmed and shared on social media. The Election Commission also partnered with Twitter, for the first time in India, to boost its ''#TN100Percent'' hashtag campaign. Twitter users who have made use of the hashtag will be reminded to vote on the day of voting.

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

collaborated with ECI in its awareness campaign on striving for 100 per cent voting in the polls.

Parties and Alliances

AIADMK Alliance

All the parties contested on "two leaves" symbol as an AIADMK candidate.

DMK Alliance

Makkal Nala Kootani (People's Welfare Alliance)

National Democratic Alliance

Parties not in any coalition

Candidates

On 4 April,

released its candidate list for Tamil Nadu. On 14 April, DMK released its candidate list for Tamil Nadu.

Gopi Shankar Madurai Gopi Shankar Madurai, born 13 April 1991, is an Indian equal rights and Indigenous rights activist. Shankar was one of the youngest, and the first openly intersex and genderqueer statutory authority and one of the candidates to contest in 201 ...

, a 25 years old gender activist made a bid to contest as one of the youngest candidates in the Tamil Nadu Assembly election and also the first openly

Intersex Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bin ...

& Genderqueer person to do so. Gopi contested on the ticket of newly launched outfit Anaithu Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) for Madurai North. He secured 14th place out of 21 candidates.

Manifestos

DMK released its election manifesto on 10 April 2016.

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

released its election manifesto on 21 April 2016. On 23 March 2016, Naam Tamilar Katchi published its 316-page election manifesto 2016, a complete plan to develop Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) is the wing of Indian National Congress serving in Tamil Nadu. The current president is K.S. Alagari. Social policy of the TNCC is officially based upon the Gandhian principle of Sarvodaya (upliftment of all ...

released its election manifesto on 27 April 2016.

Pattali Makkal Katchi Paattali Makkal Katchi (; PMK) is a political party in Tamil Nadu, India, founded by S. Ramadoss in 1989 for the Vanniyars, a caste in northern Tamil Nadu. It is currently part of the BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). It contests t ...

released its draft election manifesto on 15 September 2015 and final election manifesto on 15 April 2016.

released its election manifesto on 5 May 2016.

Voter Turnout

Voter turnout for the 232 constituencies on 16 May was 74.81%. Parts of Tamil Nadu received heavy rain on the polling day, but it did not deter voters from turning out to cast their votes. While the highest voter turn out was in Dharmapuri constituency recording 85% while the lowest voter turnout was in the capital of Tamil Nadu, Chennai recording 55%. Male voter turnout was 74.15% and female voter turnout was 74.33%.

Exit polls

Results

The ruling AIADMK, beating most of the exit polls, was able to retain power with a comfortable majority and became the first party to win consecutive elections since 1984, a feat achieved by

M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist, and filmmaker who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987 ...

Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016) was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 9 February 1989 to 5 December 2 ...

bucked

Anti-incumbency Anti-incumbency is sentiment in favor of voting out incumbent politicians. It is sometimes referred to as a "throw the bums out" sentiment. Periods of anti-incumbent sentiment are typically characterized by wave elections. This sentiment can also le ...

trend and cyclic change of governments in the state that hadn't voted back a government in last three decades.

, -style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="vertical-align:bottom;text-align: center;" rowspan=2 colspan=2, Parties and Coalitions !! style="vertical-align:bottom;text-align:center;" width="60" rowspan=2, Votes !! style="vertical-align:bottom;text-align:center;" rowspan=2, % !! style="text-align:center;" colspan=3, Seats , -style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="text-align:center;", Contested !! style="text-align:left;", Won !! style="text-align:center;", +/- , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK) is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is a Dravidian party founded by the former chief mini ...

(AIADMK), , 17,806,490 , , 40.88% , , 234 , , 136 , , 14 , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; DMK) is a political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu where it is currently the ruling party having a comfortable majority without coalition support and the union territory of Puducherry where it is curre ...

(DMK) , , 13,670,511 , , 31.39% , , 178 , , 89 , , 66 , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

(DMK), , 2,774,075 , , 6.47% , , 41 , , 8 , , 3 , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

Indian Union Muslim League The Indian Union Muslim League (abbreviated as the I. U. M. L. or the League) is an Indian political party primarily based in the Indian state of Kerala. It is recognised as a State Party in Kerala by the Election Commission of India. The first ...

(DMK) , , 313,808 , , 0.73% , , 5 , , 1 , , 1 , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

, , 2,302,564 , , 5.36% , , 234 , , 0 , , 3 , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

, , 1,235,660 , , 2.86% , , 234 , , 0 , , , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam The Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (; DMDK) is an Indian regional political party in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is a Dravidian party founded by the former leader of the opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Vijayakant (Captai ...

(PWF) , , 1,037,431 , , 2.41% , , 105 , , 0 , , 29 , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;", Independents , , 617,907 , , 1.44% , , 234 , , 0 , , , - , , , style="text-align:left;", Naam Tamilar Katchi , , 460,089 , , 1.07% , , 234 , , 0 , , , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ( 'Renaissance Dravidian Progressive Federation') is a political party active in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. It was established by Vaiko in 1994 after he left the Dravida Munnetra ...

(PWF) , , 373,713 , , 0.87% , , 28 , , 0 , , , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;", Communist Party of India (PWF) , , 340,290 , , 0.79% , , 25 , , 0 , , 9 , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (; VCK) formerly known as the Dalit Panthers of India or the Dalit Panthers Iyyakkam (; DPI) is an Indian social movement and political party that seeks to combat caste based discrimination, active in the state o ...

(PWF) , , 331,849 , , 0.77% , , 25 , , 0 , , , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the na ...

(PWF) , , 307,303 , , 0.72% , , 25 , , 0 , , 10 , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

Tamil Maanila Congress The Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) (; TMC(M)) is an Indian regional political party in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is founded by the former Member of Parliament of the Republic of India G. K. Moopanar on 29 March 1996 as a breakaway fact ...

(PWF) , , 230,711 , , 0.54% , , 26 , , 0 , , , - , , , style="text-align:left;",

Puthiya Tamilagam Puthiya Tamilagam is a caste political party based in Tamil Nadu, India. Elections The PT contested the 1999 Lok Sabha elections and ten seats in the 2001 state assembly elections, the latter in alliance with the DMK. It won no seats in either ...

(DMK) , , 219,830 , , 0.51% , , 4 , , 0 , , 2 , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

Manithaneya Makkal Katchi Manithaneya Makkal Katchi is a political party in Tamil Nadu, India. Its president is M. H. Jawahirullah. In 2009 election Manithaneya makkal Katchi contested in railway engine symbol. 2011 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, the party jo ...

, , 197,150 , , 0.46% , , 4 , , 0 , , 2 , - , , , style="text-align:left;",

Kongunadu Makkal Desia Katchi Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi (KMDK) is a political party in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The party's vote base is mainly concentrated in western districts of Tamil Nadu. It was a splinter party of Kongunadu Munnetra Kazhagam (KMK) The party ...

, , 167,560 , , 0.39% , , 72 , , 0 , , , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a national level political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), alon ...

, , 97,823 , , 0.23% , , n/a , , 0 , , , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

Social Democratic Party of India The Social Democratic Party of India, popularly known as SDPI, is an Indian political party which was founded on 21 June 2009 in New Delhi. The party is considered the political wing of the banned Islamic organization Popular Front of India (P ...

, , 65,978 , , 0.15% , , n/a , , 0 , , , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

None of the above "None of the above" (NOTA), or none for short, also known as "against all" or a "scratch" vote, is a ballot option in some jurisdictions or organizations, designed to allow the voter to indicate disapproval of the candidates in a voting system. ...

, , 5,65,077 , , 1.31% , , 234 , , – , , – , - class="sortbottom" style="background-color:#E9E9E9; font-weight:bold" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;", Total , , 4,35,56,184 , , 100.00 , , - , , 234 , , - , - ! colspan="9" , , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Valid votes , align="right" , 4,35,56,184 , align="right" , 99.93 , colspan="4" rowspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Invalid votes , align="right" , 29,507 , align="right" , 0.07 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Votes cast / turnout , align="right" , 4,35,85,691 , align="right" , 74.81 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Abstentions , align="right" , 1,46,74,574 , align="right" , 25.19 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2" , Registered voters , align="right" , 5,82,60,506 , colspan="1" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - Election to two assembly constituencies were cancelled by the Election Commission on confirmed reports of bribing voters in

and

. Elections were held later there on 26 October 2016

Results by constituency

Detailed Analysis & Performance of political parties

Controversies

On 3 May, News 7 and

Dinamalar ''Dinamalar'' is an Indian Tamil daily newspaper. It was founded in 1951 by T. V. Ramasubba Iyer. ''Dinamalar'' has an average circulation of 942,812 (ABC Jan-June 2016) History Dinamalar was founded by T. V. Ramasubbaiyer on 6 September 195 ...

released an opinion poll giving an edge for DMK over AIADMK. But some editions of Dinamalar carried a statement on the first page distancing itself from the surveys. In an instance VVPAT was helpful in resolving an issue pertaining to a tally of votes in

Kancheepuram Assembly constituency Kancheepuram is a state assembly constituency in Kancheepuram district, Tamil Nadu, India. Its State Assembly Constituency number is 37. It comprises a portion of Kanchipuram taluk and is a part of the similarly named constituency that is u ...

as the number of votes entered in the Form 17C of a polling booth and the total number of votes recorded in the EVM control unit of that booth did not tally.

Cash for votes

Wide spread allegations of parties bribing voters with cash were raised and the Election commission responded by increasing the number of flying squads to conduct raids and prevent distribution of cash for votes. First time in the Indian history Rs 570 crores of three containers captured in Tirupur, no one claimed for that money at the first day. Later SBI claimed that money. Many parties like CPI(M), CPI, VCK, MDMK, PMK, wanted clear information about that money.

Postponement of polls

The Election Commission postponed the polls in

and

constituencies due to reports of distribution of huge sums of money and alcohol to voters. The polling was initially postponed to 13 June, despite the

Governor of Tamil Nadu The governor of Tamil Nadu is the head of state of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The governors have similar powers and functions at the state level as those of the president of India at central level. They exist in the state appointed by th ...

requesting that it should happen before 1 June. The date was subsequently amended to November.

By-Election

On 26 October 2016, the Election Commission announced that the election for

Thiruparankundram Thiruparankundram, also spelled Tirupparankundram or Tiruparangundram, is a town in Madurai district in Tamil Nadu, India. It is about from Madurai city and constitutes the southwest part of the greater Madurai city (Municipal Corporation). The ...

, Aravakurichi and Thanjavur constituencies would be held on 19 November 2016. The outcome was:

22 by election results

References

External links

Chief Electoral Officer, Tamil Nadu
{{Tamil Nadu assembly elections

TAMILNADU Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language— ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

May 2016 events in India