The ninth legislative assembly election of Tamil Nadu was held on 21 January 1989. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) won the election and its leader

M. Karunanidhi Muthuvel Karunanidhi (3 June 1924 – 7 August 2018) was an Indian writer and politician who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for almost two decades over five terms between 1969 and 2011. He was popularly referred to as Kalaignar (Art ...

, became the Chief Minister. It was his third term in office. The DMK was in power only for a short term, as it was dismissed on 31 January 1991 by the Indian Prime minister Chandra Shekhar using

Article 356 In India, President's rule is the suspension of state government and imposition of direct Union government rule in a state. Under Article 356 of the Constitution of India, if a state government is unable to function according to Constitutional ...

(Otherwise) of the Indian Constitution.

Background

Split in AIADMK

After the death of M. G. Ramachandran (M.G.R) in December 1987, his wife V. N. Janaki Ramachandran took over as Chief Minister. She lasted less than a month in power. The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) split into two factions, one led by Janaki and the other by

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 ...

. The undivided AIADMK legislature party had a strength of 132 including the Speaker P. H. Pandian. 97 of them supported the Janaki faction while 33 backed the Jayalalithaa group. Speaker Pandian was a supporter of Janaki. He did not recognize the Jayalalithaa group as a separate party. On 28 January 1988, Janaki sought a vote of confidence in the Assembly. The Jayalalithaa group abstained from the assembly and Pandian disqualified all of them. Earlier in December 1986, 10 MLAs of the DMK had been expelled from the Assembly by Pandian for their participation in the anti-Hindi agitation of 1986, bringing down the strength of the house to 224. The disqualification of the 33 MLAs of the Jayalalithaa group by P.H.Pandian further reduced the assembly's strength to 191. This enabled Janaki to win the vote of confidence with the support of only 99 members (with 8 opposing votes and 3 neutrals). Other opposition parties boycotted the vote - only 111 members were present during the motion. Though she won the vote of confidence, her government was dismissed by prime minister

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...

on 30 January citing the disruptions in the assembly. After a year of

President's rule In India, President's rule is the suspension of state government and imposition of direct Union government rule in a state. Under Article 356 of the Constitution of India, if a state government is unable to function according to Constitutional ...

, elections were again held in January 1989. Both the AIADMK factions claimed to be the official AIADMK and requested the election commission to grant the "two leaves" symbol of the AIADMK to them. However, the election commission refused to recognize either of them as the official AIADMK and temporarily froze the "two leaves" symbol. Instead it awarded the "cock" symbol to the Jayalalithaa faction (AIADMK(J)), while the Janaki faction (AIADMK(JA)) was given the "two doves" symbol. The politics of governor's office, The Business Line - 3 November 2003
/ref>All For You, Amma Outlook Magazine 13 March 1996
/ref>Raising The Dead Outlook Magazine 24 January 1996
/ref>

Coalitions

The Tamil Nadu unit of 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 ...

initially decided to ally with the Jayalalithaa faction. This move was opposed by actor and Congress leader Sivaji Ganesan. On 10 February 1988, he left the party along with his supporters to form a new party

Thamizhaga Munnetra Munnani Thamizhaga Munnetra Munnani (1988-1989) was a short-lived political party found by veteran Tamil film actor Sivaji Ganesan in the year 1988. Sivaji Ganesan had a long running relation with many political parties, with his first movie itself being ...

. Ganesan's party allied itself with the Janaki faction. Eventually, the Congress also contested the elections alone. The DMK was part of the Janata Dal led National Front. The front initially included both the

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. ...

(CPI) and

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 ...

(CPM).South India Election Will Test Political Strength of Gandhi, The New York Times 21 January 1989
/ref> However, in the election only Janata Dal and CPM had a seat sharing agreement with the DMK. The CPI allied itself with the AIADMK(J). This election attracted unusually high level of attention at the national level. It was seen as a precursor for the General election of 1989, a test of Rajiv Gandhi's popularity and P.H.Pandian's popularity as a speaker claiming Sky High Powers. The Tamil Nadu Congress (under

G. K. Moopanar Govindaswamy Karuppiah Moopanar (19 August 1931 – 30 August 2001) known as G. K. Moopanar was a Tamil Nadu Congress Committee leader, parliamentarian, and social worker.He was served as Member of the Rajya Sabha , president of Tamil Nadu Cong ...

) was contesting elections alone after a gap of twelve years and Rajjiv Gandhi campaigned extensively making multiple campaign visits to Tamil Nadu.

V. P. Singh Vishwanath Pratap Singh (25 June 1931 – 27 November 2008), shortened to V. P. Singh, was an Indian politician who was the 7th Prime Minister of India from 1989 to 1990 and the 41st Raja Bahadur of Manda. He is India's only prime minister to ...

and Jyoti Basu, the national leaders of Janata Dal and CPM respectively also campaigned for the DMK led front in Tamil Nadu.

Seat allotments

DMK Front

AIADMK (Jayalalithaa) Front

†: The four seats that were delayed were contested by a united AIADMK front (AIADMK(J) & AIADMK(JA)), under the leader Jayalalithaa in a bye-election.

AIADMK (Janaki) Front

Congress

Voting and results

The election for 232 constituencies was held on 21 January 1989. The turnout among registered voters was 69.69%. Elections could not be held for two constituencies - Marungapuri and Madurai East - due to technical reasons. For these two elections were conducted later on 11 March 1989. Since the two AIADMK factions had merged in February 1989 under the leadership of Jayalalitha, the Election Commission restored the "Two Leaves" symbol to the unified AIADMK for these elections. The unified AIADMK won both the seats. 1989 tamil nadu legislative election map by parties

1989 tamil nadu legislative election map by parties

Results by Pre-Poll Alliance

, - ! 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: " , , 169 , +137 , 9,135,220 , colspan=2 style="text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;", 37.9% , - , DMK ! style="background-color: #FF0000" , , 150 , +126 , 8,001,222 , 33.2% , 38.7% , - , CPI(M) ! style="background-color: #000080" , , 15 , +10 , 851,351 , 3.5% , 36.5% , - , JNP ! style="background-color: #FFFF00" , , 4 , +1 , 282,647 , 1.2% , 29.1% , - ! style="background-color:#009900; color:white", AIADMK(J)+ alliance ! style="background-color: " , , 30 , -5 , 5,393,857 , colspan=2 style="text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;", 22.4% , - ,

AIADMK(J) 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) ...

! style="background-color: lime" , , 27 , -6 , 5,098,687 , 22.2% , 25.0% , - , CPI ! style="background-color: #0000FF" , , 3 , +1 , 295,170 , 1.2% , 21.3% , - ! style="background-color:gray; color:white", Others ! style="background-color:gray" , , 33 , -132 , 9,160,163 , colspan=2 style="text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;", 38.0% , - , INC ! style="background-color: #00FFFF" , , 26 , -37 , 4,780,714 , 19.8% , 21.8% , - , AIADMK(JA) ! style="background-color: olive" , , 2 , -95 , 2,214,965 , 9.2% , 12.2% , - , IND ! style="background-color: #666666" , , 5 , +1 , 2,164,484 , 9.0% , 9.1% , - , style="text-align:center;" , Total ! style="background-color: " , , 232 , – , 24,111,468 , 100% , style="text-align:center;" , – , - Sources: Election Commission of India ECI: 1989 Election Statistical Report
/ref>

Analysis

The split in the AIADMK and the Congress contesting alone split the opposition votes, while the DMK retained its vote bank and won a comfortable majority. Janaki Ramachandran, contesting from Andipatti, lost to DMK's

P. Asayan P. Asayan (born 1957) was an Indian politician and former Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu. He was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly as a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate from Andipatti constituency in 1989 an ...

by less than a 5000 vote margin, in a four-way contest between AIADMK (Janaki), AIADMK (Jayalalithaa), Congress, and DMK.

Cabinet

Footnotes

External links

Election Commission of India
{{Tamil Nadu assembly elections, state=expanded State Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu 1980s in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu 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 languag ...