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 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 ...

-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) 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 ...

was sworn in as Chief Minister for a fifth and final term. This election marked the first time the state saw a

hung assembly A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing coalition (also known as an alliance or bloc) has an absolute majority of legi ...

with no party gaining a majority of its own. As a result, DMK formed a minority government with its allies, which is the first in the state since the

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

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

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 ...

and his political outfit, the

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 (Capt ...

(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 and British English, although polling place is the building

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 ( '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 Munnetr ...

(MDMK) from DMK led Democratic Progressive Alliance to

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 ...

(AIADMK) led alliance. While Dalit Panthers of India joined the AIADMK alliance, all other major parties in the fray such as

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 th ...

(PMK),

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 ...

, CPM and Communist Party of India (CPI), aligned themselves with the DMK party. There were two notable new parties —

(DMDK) formed in September 2005 by

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), l ...

-turned-politician

Vijaykanth 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 ...

, and

Lok Paritran Paritrana, meaning "to bring relief from the cause of distress" in Sanskrit, is the former name of an Indian political party later renamed to Lok Paritran. The party was formed in February 2006 by a group of six graduates from IIT Bombay and IIT Ka ...

formed by

Indian Institutes of Technology The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are central government owned public technical institutes located across India. They are under the ownership of the Ministry of Education of the Government of India. They are governed by the Ins ...

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 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

, the

left the DMK, citing differences with 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 (Ar ...

, and joined the AIADMK, and the Third Front.

Seat allotments

AIADMK Front

Source: Junior Vikatan

DMK Front

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. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

(BJP), drew blank after contesting alone in this elections. PMK managed to win 18 seats followed by the Communists (14 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 General elections were held in India in four phases between 20 April and 10 May 2004. Over 670 million people were eligible to vote, electing 543 members of the 14th Lok Sabha. Seven states also held assembly elections to elect state governme ...

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,

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 ...

) and

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 Inc. or inc may refer to: * Incorporation (business), as a suffix indicating a corporation * ''Inc.'' (magazine), an American business magazine * Inc. No World, a Los Angeles-based band * Indian National Congress, a political party in India * I ...

! 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) 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 nat ...

! style="background-color: #000080" , , 9 , +3 , 872,674 , 2.7% , 42.7% , - ,

CPI A consumer price index (CPI) is a price index, the price of a weighted average market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households. Changes in measured CPI track changes in prices over time. Overview A CPI is a statistic ...

! style="background-color: #0000FF" , , 6 , +1 , 531,740 , 1.6% , 40.4% , - ! style="background-color:#009900; color:white", AIADMK+ alliance ! style="background-color: " , , 69 , -64 , 13,166,445 , colspan=2 style="text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;", 39.9% , - ,

AIADMK 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 ...

! style="background-color: #008000" , , 61 , -72 , 10,768,559 , 32.6% , 40.8% , - ,

MDMK 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 ...

! style="background-color: #FF00FF" , , 6 , +6 , 1,971,565 , 6.0% , 37.7% , - ,

VCK 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 ...

! 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 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 ...

! style="background-color: #008080" , , 1 , +1 , 2,764,223 , 8.4% , 8.5% , - ,

BJP 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 ...

! style="background-color: " , , 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 TMC may stand for: Companies and brands * Thinking Machines Corporation, a defunct supercomputer company * Toyota Motor Corporation, a Japanese automobile manufacturer *Transportation Management Center, a division of American shipping company C.H. ...

merged with the national party

in 2002.

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

FBL MLA L. Santhanam, joined AIADMK and contested in

Sholavandan Chozhavandan is a panchayat town in Madurai district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the left bank of the Vaigai River, sixteen miles north west of Madurai. It is one of 12 "town- panchayats" of Madurai district. Etymolo ...

, 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.

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 2000s in Tamil Nadu May 2006 events in India