The thirteenth legislative assembly election, of Tamil Nadu was held on 8 May 2006. It was held for all 234 constituencies to elect the government in the state for the following five years. The votes were counted three days later on 11 May 2006 and all the results were out by the end of the day. The

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; ; DMK) is an Indian political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu, where it is currently the ruling party, and the union territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry, where it is currently the main ...

-led (DMK) front won the elections, with the DMK emerging as the single-largest party with 96 seats, and its leader,

M Karunanidhi Muthuvel Karunanidhi (3 June 1924 – 7 August 2018), also known as Kalaignar (Artist), was an Indian writer and politician who served as List of chief ministers of Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for almost two decades over five t ...

was sworn in as Chief Minister for a fifth and final term. This election marked the first time the state saw a hung assembly with no party gaining a majority of its own. As a result, DMK formed a

minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in ...

with its allies, which is the first in the state since the

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

election. 13th Assembly was instituted due to this election. The election marked the electoral debut of the actor

Vijayakanth Vijayaraj Alagarswami (25 August 1952 – 28 December 2023), known by his stage name Vijayakanth, was an Indian actor, filmmaker, philanthropist and politician. He worked in Tamil cinema in a career spanning four decades. He ventured into politi ...

and his political outfit, the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK). Though the party could only gain a single seat, it cut into the vote share of both DMK and AIADMK and emerged as a third alternative to the existing two Dravidian parties.

Polling

48848

polling station A polling place is where voters cast their ballots in elections. The phrase polling station is also used in American English, British English and Canadian English although a polling place is the building and polling station is the specific ...

s were set up for electorate, that sized up to 46,607 eligible voters.

Political parties and the alliances

Tamil Nadu has a remarkable history of being dominated by the local parties, DMK or AIADMK, while the national parties have a strong presence in other states. The parties have resorted to forming alliances in the last few elections to take on each sides for power. Striking changes in the alliances included the swap of

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; MDMK) is a political party active in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It was established by Vaiko in 1994 after he left the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. The headquarters of the party is called Thayag ...

(MDMK) from DMK led Democratic Progressive Alliance to

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK, also abbreviated as ADMK), also shortened to Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, is an Indian Regionalism (politics), regional political party with great influence in the Federated state, sta ...

(AIADMK) led Democratic People Alliance. While Dalit Panthers of India joined the AIADMK alliance, all other major parties in the fray such as Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK),

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

, CPM and

Communist Party of India The Communist Party of India (CPI) is a political party in India. The CPI considers the Foundation of the Communist Party of India, December 26, 1925 Cawnpore (Kanpur) conference as its foundation date. Between 1946 and 1951, the CPI led m ...

(CPI), aligned themselves with the DMK party. There were two notable new parties — Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) formed in September 2005 by

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

-turned-politician Vijaykanth, and Lok Paritran formed by

Indian Institutes of Technology The Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) are a network of engineering and technology institutions in India. Established in 1950, they are under the purview of the Ministry of Education of the Indian Government and are governed by the Inst ...

graduates in February 2006. Both contested alone in this elections. The contest was between two major alliances in a seat-sharing agreement, the AIADMK alliance and the DMK alliance. These archrivals had a face-off in 106 seats. Exit Polls predicted a 157-167 seats in favour of the DMK alliance, while the AIADMK alliance was expected to get 64-74 seats in the assembly. Before the 2009 Lok Sabha Elections, the Pattali Makkal Katchi left the DMK, citing differences with its leader M. Karunanidhi, and joined the AIADMK, and the Third Front.

Seat allotments

Democratic Progressive Alliance Secular Progressive Alliance formerly known as Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) is an alliance of Indian political parties formed by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). History The alliance was known as the ''Democratic Progressive All ...

Source: Junior Vikatan

Democratic People Alliance

Source: Junior Vikatan

Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam

Source: Junior Vikatan The two seats that DMDK contested in Ring symbol instead of nagara .

Bharatiya Janata Party

Source: Junior Vikatan

Opinion polling

Pre-poll surveys

Exit polls

Voting and results

The 2006 Tamil Nadu State Elections saw a record voter turnout of 70.70% an 11% increase compared to the last 2001 elections and the highest since the 1991 elections which saw an 85% voter turnout. The ruling party AIADMK was voted out of power with the DMK alliance regaining power after losing out in the previous elections with a paltry 37 seats. This time however, no party reached the simple majority of 117 of the 234 seats. DMK grabbed the highest number of seats (96) for any contesting party, while AIADMK followed with 61 seats. The Congress won 34 seats while the other national party,

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

(BJP), drew blank after contesting alone in this elections. PMK managed to win 18 seats followed by the Communists (15 seats). MDMK, the party that jumped alliance won 6 seats and the DPI won 2 seats. DMDK, even while contesting in 232 seats managed to score just one seat, with the party leader actor vijayakant winning the seat he contested in Vridhachalam Constituency. There was 1 independent winner.Newindpress.com Article
''dated'' 12 May 2006, ''accessed'' 12 May 2006. The split results paved way for the formation of the new coalition government led by DMK chief, the 82-year-old veteran politician Dr.

, becoming the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the fifth time, with the Congress unconditionally supporting his claim for Chief Ministership and government formation. Due to the loss of key allies after the previous election, the

(AIADMK), ended up losing both the 2004 Lok Sabha Election and the 2006 State Assembly Elections, to DMK led coalition that consisted of

(DMK), and former allies of AIADMK,

, left parties (

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a Communism in India, communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electora ...

) and Pattali Makkal Katchi.

Results by pre-poll alliance

2006 tamil nadu legislative election map by parties

2006 tamil nadu legislative election map

, - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" , Alliance/Party !style="width:4px" , ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Seats won ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Change^† ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Popular Vote ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Vote % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Adj. %^‡ , - ! style="background-color:#FF0000; color:white", DMK+ alliance ! style="background-color: " , , 163 , +71 , 14,762,647 , colspan=2 style="text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;", 44.8% , - , DMK ! style="background-color: #FF0000" , , 96 , +65 , 8,728,716 , 26.5% , 46.0% , - , INC ! style="background-color: #00FFFF" , , 34 , +4 , 2,765,768 , 8.4% , 43.5% , - , PMK ! style="background-color: #800080" , , 18 , -2 , 1,863,749 , 5.7% , 43.4% , - , CPI(M) ! style="background-color: #000080" , , 9 , +3 , 872,674 , 2.7% , 42.7% , - , CPI ! style="background-color: #0000FF" , , 6 , +1 , 531,740 , 1.6% , 40.4% , - ! style="background-color:#009900; color:white", ! style="background-color: " , , 69 , -64 , 13,166,445 , colspan=2 style="text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;", 39.9% , - , AIADMK ! style="background-color: #008000" , , 61 , -71 , 10,768,559 , 32.6% , 40.8% , - , MDMK ! style="background-color: #FF00FF" , , 6 , +6 , 1,971,565 , 6.0% , 37.7% , - , VCK ! style="background-color: #FFFF00" , , 2 , +2 , 426,321 , 1.3% , 36.1% , - ! style="background-color:Black; color:white", Others ! style="background-color:black" , , 2 , -7 , 5,062,463 , colspan=2 style="text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;", 15.3% , - , DMDK ! style="background-color: #008080" , , 1 , +1 , 2,764,223 , 8.4% , 8.5% , - , BJP ! style="background-color: #FF9933" , , 0 , -6 , 666,823 , 2.0% , 2.1% , - ,

IND Ind or IND may refer to: General * Independent (politician), a politician not affiliated to any political party * Independent station, used within television program listings and the television industry for a station that is not affiliated with ...

! style="background-color: #666666" , , 1 , -2 , 995,345 , 3.0% , 3.1% , - , style="text-align:center;" , Total ! style="background-color: " , , 234 , – , 32,991,555 , 100% , style="text-align:center;" , – , - Sources: Election Commission of India †: Seat changes reflect the following mergers in parties from previous election. MADMK merged with

in 2002. TMC merged with the national party INC in 2002.

Usilampatti Usilampatti () is a town and a second grade municipality of Madurai district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is also a designated taluk and revenue division. Location Usilampatti town lies 37 km east of Theni town and 32 km ...

FBL MLA L. Santhanam, joined AIADMK and contested in Sholavandan, after being expelled from his party by newly elected actor-turned party leader Karthik.
‡: Vote % reflects the percentage of votes the party received compared to the entire electorate that voted in this election. Adjusted (Adj.) Vote %, reflects the % of votes the party received per constituency that they contested.

Constituency wise results

The following table lists the winners and margin of victory in all constituencies.

Aftermath

Pattali Makkal Katchi, and its leader Dr. Ramdoss and left parties would also end up joining the AIADMK led front, leaving the DMK coalition ahead of 2009 Lok Sabha General election.

Footnotes

External links

News coverage of the election on Rediff

Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tamil Nadu State Assembly Election, 2006 2006 State Assembly elections in India

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2000s in Tamil Nadu May 2006 in India

Polling

Political parties and the alliances

Seat allotments

Democratic Progressive Alliance Secular Progressive Alliance formerly known as Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) is an alliance of Indian political parties formed by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). History The alliance was known as the ''Democratic Progressive All ...

Democratic People Alliance

Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam

Bharatiya Janata Party

Opinion polling

Pre-poll surveys

Exit polls

Voting and results

Results by pre-poll alliance

Constituency wise results

Aftermath

See also

Footnotes

External links