The Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is an elected

Member of Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

who leads the

official opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''th ...

in the

Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It has a strength of 234 members of whom are democratically elected using the First-past-the-post voting, First-past-the-post system. The pres ...

. The Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is the chairperson of the largest political party in the legislative assembly that is not in

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

(provided that said political party has at least 10% of the seats in the legislative assembly). Since 1952, the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly has had 18 leaders of the opposition. The longest-serving leader of the opposition,

J. 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 ...

from

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 ...

became the legislative assembly's first and, to date, only female leader of the opposition. She was the first actress to become the leader of the opposition in the state's legislative assembly in

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 ...

, while

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 (Captain ...

's founder

Vijayakant 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 ...

is the first actor to become the leader of the opposition in the state's legislative assembly in India. The

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 ...

's former president, M. Karunanidhi, has the second-longest tenure, having held the office for 5 years and 259 days, and S. Balakrishnan from the

Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) 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 ...

has the third-longest tenure, having held the office for 4 years and 356 days. The current incumbent has been

Edappadi K. Palaniswami Edappadi K. Palaniswami (born 12 May 1954), also known as E.P.S., is an Indian politician and the leader of opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. He served as the 7th Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, from 2017 to 2021. He has been th ...

of the

since 11 May 2021.

List

;Key * Resigned * Returned to office after a previous non-consecutive term ;Legend * * * * * * *

Statistics

;List of leaders of the opposition by length of term ;Timeline ;List by party ;Parties by total duration (in days) of holding Leader of the Opposition's Office

Living former leaders of the opposition

As of , there were four living former leaders of the opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, in order of service, are: File:No image available.svg, S. R. Balasubramoniyan
(1991–1996)
File:O. Panneerselvam.jpg, O. Panneerselvam
(2006–2006)
File:Vijaykanth at the Sagaptham Audio Launch.jpg,

(2011–2016)
File:Hon CM Photo.jpg,

M. K. Stalin Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin ( , born 1 March 1953), often referred to by his initials MKS, is an Indian Tamil politician serving as the 8th and current Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. The son of the former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, Stalin ...

(2016–2021)
The most recent death of a former leader of the opposition was that of S. R. Eradha on 8 December 2020, aged 86.

List

Statistics

Living former leaders of the opposition

List of deputy leaders of the opposition

See also

Notes

References