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

Thanjavur Thanjavur (), also known as Thanjai, previously known as Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the 12th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of southern Indian religion, art ...

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 the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. 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 Indi ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The

AIADMK The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK, also abbreviated as ADMK), also shortened to Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the 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. The 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, 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 ...

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 chief

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 ...

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 later that year 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: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

. 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 15th legislative assembly was organised and conducted by the

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body established by Constitution of India, the Constitution of the Republic of India empowered to conduct free and fair elections in the Republic of India. It is headed by a Chief Ele ...

(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 (VVPAT) machines attached along with EVMs. Voter-verified paper audit trail (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 (SC) and 7,94,697 people constituting 1.10% of the population belonged to Scheduled tribes (ST). Other Backward Classes (OBCs) form 68% of the population. As per the religious census of 2011, Tamil Nadu had 87.6%

Hindus Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

, 5.9%

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

, 6.1%

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

, 0.1% Jains 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

(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, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

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

Parties and Alliances

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, 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 those 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 binar ...

Genderqueer Non-binary or genderqueer gender identities are those that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gender that is differ ...

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 List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

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 released its election manifesto on 27 April 2016. Pattali Makkal Katchi 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 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

, a feat achieved by M. G. Ramachandran.

Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016), popularly known as Amma, was an Indian actress, politician, and philanthropist who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years between 1991 and 2016. She ...

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

Vote share

, -style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! style="vertical-align:bottom;text-align: center;" rowspan=2 colspan=4, Party/Alliance !! 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:", , , colspan=3 style="text-align:left;",

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) , , style="background-color:#ACE1AF;" , 17,806,490 , , style="background-color:#ACE1AF;", 40.88% , , style="background-color:#ACE1AF;", 234 , , style="background-color:#ACE1AF;", 136 , , style="background-color:#ACE1AF;", 14 , - , rowspan="6" bgcolor="" , , rowspan="6" , DPA , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

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 ...

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

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

Indian Union Muslim League Indian Union Muslim League (abbreviated as the IUML or Muslim League) is a political party primarily based in Kerala. It is recognised as a List of political parties in India, State Party in Kerala by the Election Commission of India. After the ...

, , 313,808 , , 0.73% , , 5 , , 1 , , 1 , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;", Puthiya Tamilagam , , 219,830 , , 0.51% , , 4 , , 0 , , 2 , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;", Manithaneya Makkal Katchi , , 197,150 , , 0.46% , , 4 , , 0 , , 2 , - , colspan="2" style="background: #F4C2C2;text-align:left", Total , style="background: #F4C2C2", 17,175,374 , style="background: #F4C2C2", 39.40 , style="background: #F4C2C2", 234 , style="background: #F4C2C2", 98 , style="background: #F4C2C2", 66 , - , rowspan="7" bgcolor="#CAE00D" , , rowspan="7" , People's Welfare Front
(PWF) , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;", Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam , , 1,037,431 , , 2.41% , , 105 , , 0 , , 29 , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

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 ...

, , 373,713 , , 0.87% , , 28 , , 0 , , , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;",

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 ...

, , 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 ...

, , 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)) 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 ...

, , 307,303 , , 0.72% , , 25 , , 0 , , 10 , - , style="background-color:", , , style="text-align:left;", Tamil Maanila Congress , , 230,711 , , 0.54% , , 26 , , 0 , , , - , colspan="2" style="background: #FFFF99;text-align:left", Total , style="background: #FFFF99", 2,621,297 , style="background: #FFFF99", 6.1 , style="background: #FFFF99", 234 , style="background: #FFFF99", 0 , style="background: #FFFF99", 48 , - , style="background-color:", , , colspan=3 style="text-align:left;", Pattali Makkal Katchi , , 2,302,564 , , 5.36% , , 234 , , 0 , , 3 , - , style="background-color:", , , colspan=3 style="text-align:left;",

, , 1,235,660 , , 2.86% , , 234 , , 0 , , , - , style="background-color:", , , colspan=3 style="text-align:left;", Naam Tamilar Katchi , , 460,089 , , 1.07% , , 234 , , 0 , , , - , style="background-color:", , , colspan=3 style="text-align:left;",

All India Forward Bloc The All India Forward Bloc ( AIFB) is a Left-wing nationalism, left-wing nationalist political party in India. It emerged as a Political faction, faction within the Indian National Congress in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose, and was strongest ...

, , 44,546 , , 0.10% , , 33 , , 0 , , 1 , - , style="background-color:", , , colspan=3 style="text-align:left;", Kongunadu Makkal Desia Katchi , , 167,560 , , 0.39% , , 72 , , 0 , , , - , style="background-color:", , , colspan=3 style="text-align:left;",

Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party ( BSP) is a 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), along with Religious ...

, , 97,823 , , 0.23% , , n/a , , 0 , , , - , style="background-color:", , , colspan=3 style="text-align:left;", Social Democratic Party of India , , 65,978 , , 0.15% , , n/a , , 0 , , , - , style="background-color:", , , colspan=3 style="text-align:left;", Independents , , 617,907 , , 1.44% , , 234 , , 0 , , , - , style="background-color:", , , colspan=3 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=4 style="text-align:left;", Total , , 4,35,56,184 , , 100.00 , , - , , 234 , , - , - ! colspan="9" , , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4" , 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="4" , Invalid votes , align="right" , 29,507 , align="right" , 0.07 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4" , Votes cast / turnout , align="right" , 4,35,85,691 , align="right" , 74.81 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4" , Abstentions , align="right" , 1,46,74,574 , align="right" , 25.19 , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="4" , 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

By Region

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 689,773 ( ABC Jan–Jun 2022). History Dinamalar was founded by T. V. Ramasubbaiyer on 6 September ...

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 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 the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Governor (India), Governors in India have similar powers and functions at the state level as those of the president of India at the central level. They exist in the Sta ...

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

Adjuned and By-Election

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

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

May 2016 in India