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-led (DMK) front won the elections, with the DMK emerging as the single-largest party with 96 seats, and its leader, M Karunanidhi 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 with its allies, which is the first in the state since the 1952 election. 13th Assembly was instituted due to this election.
The election marked the electoral debut of the actor Vijayakanth 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.
Schedule
Event
Date
Date for Nominations
13 April 2006
Last Date for filing Nominations
20 April 2006
Date for scrutiny of nominations
21 April 2006
Last date for withdrawal of candidatures
24 April 2006
Date of poll
8 May 2006
Date of counting
11 May 2006
Polling
48848 polling stations 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.
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 [1] 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.
Vanniyars: PMK could not swing the community towards DMK alliance, especially in the North Central Region
Upper North
40%
45%
11%
North Central
53%
32%
9%
Cauvery Delta
55%
28%
10%
West
53%
28%
11%
Thevars: No longer with AIADMK in Cauvery Delta and the West
Cauvery Delta
51%
38%
7%
West
43%
39%
11%
South
39%
44%
8%
Deep South
13%
52%
2%
Muslims in favor of DMK alliance, especially in Deep South
Upper North
43%
30%
18%
North Central
36%
39%
18%
Cauvery Delta
53%
37%
5%
West
50%
31%
10%
South
50%
38%
7%
Deep South
73%
9%
5%
Christians stayed with DMK alliance, especially in the South
Upper North
49%
29%
13%
North Central
47%
36%
12%
Cauvery Delta
46%
39%
9%
West
48%
29%
10%
South
60%
33%
4%
Deep South
64%
16%
7%
Voting and results
The Chief Election Commissioner of India, B.B. Tandon, holding a press conference in New Delhi on March 1, 2006, to announce the schedule for Legislative Assembly election of Tamil Nadu along with those of Assam, Kerala, West Bengal, and Puducherry.
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 (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.[6][7]
The split results paved way for the formation of the new coalition government led by DMK chief, the 82-year-old veteran politician Dr.M Karunanidhi, becoming the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the fifth time, with the Congress unconditionally supporting his claim for Chief Ministership and government formation.
†: Seat changes reflect the following mergers in parties from previous election. MADMK merged with Bharatiya Janata Party in 2002.[9]TMC merged with the national party INC in 2002.[10]UsilampattiFBL MLA L. Santhanam, joined AIADMK and contested in Sholavandan, after being expelled from his party by newly elected actor-turned party leader Karthik.[11] ‡: 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.[8]
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11.49%)
