2006 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election

← 2001 8 May 2006 2011 →
All 234 seats in theLegislature of Tamil Nadu 118 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	70.56% ( 11.49%)
First party Second party Third party   Leader M. Karunanidhi J. Jayalalithaa Vijayakanth Party DMK AIADMK DMDK Alliance DPA+UPA+LF AIADMK+ None Leader's seat Chepauk Andipatti Virudhachalam Seats won 163 69 1 Seat change 71 64 New Popular vote 14,762,647 13,166,445 2,764,223 Percentage 44.75% 39.91% 8.38% Swing 6.08% 10.18% New
Partywise results by constituency Alliance wise results by constituency
Chief Minister before election J. Jayalalithaa AIADMK Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi DMK

Thethirteenth 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. TheDravida 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 afifth and final term. This election marked the first time the state saw ahung assembly with no party gaining a majority of its own. As a result, DMK formed aminority government with its allies, which is the first in the state since the1952 election.13th Assembly was instituted due to this election.

The election marked the electoral debut of the actorVijayakanth and his political outfit, theDesiya 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.

48848polling stations were set up for electorate, that sized up to 46,607 eligible voters.

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 ofMarumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) from DMK led Democratic Progressive Alliance toAll India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) led Democratic People Alliance. While Dalit Panthers of India joined the AIADMK alliance, all other major parties in the fray such asPattali Makkal Katchi (PMK),Indian National Congress,CPM andCommunist Party of India (CPI), aligned themselves with the DMK party.

There were two notable new parties —Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) formed in September 2005 byactor-turned-politicianVijaykanth, andLok Paritran formed byIndian Institutes of Technology 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^[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.

Before the2009 Lok Sabha Elections, thePattali Makkal Katchi left the DMK, citing differences with its leaderM. Karunanidhi, and joined the AIADMK, and theThird Front.

Source: Junior Vikatan

	Party	Election Symbol	Leader	Seats Contested
	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		M. Karunanidhi	128
	Indian National Congress		M. Krishnasamy	48
	Pattali Makkal Katchi		S. Ramadoss	31
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)		N. Varadarajan	13
	Communist Party of India		Tha. Pandian	10
Unregistered (or) Unrecognized party, whose candidates ran under the DMK ticket
	Indian Union Muslim League		K. M. Kader Mohideen	2
	Puratchi Bharatham Katchi		M. Jaganmoorthy	1
	Forward Bloc (Vallarasu)		P. V. Kathiravan	1

Source: Junior Vikatan

	Party	Election Symbol	Leader	Seats Contested
	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		J. Jayalalithaa	182
	Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		Vaiko	35
	Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi		Thol. Thirumavalavan	9
	Janata Dal (Secular)		H. D. Deve Gowda	1
	Tamil Maanila Muslim League		Dawood Miakhan	1
Unregistered (or) Unrecognized party, whose candidates ran under the AIADMK ticket
	Indian National league		Janab	2
	Indian National Trade Union Congress		P. L. Subbaih	2
	Moovendar Munnetra Kazhagam		G. M. Sreedhar Vandaiyar	1
	Forward Bloc (Santhanam)		L. Santhanam	1

Source: Junior Vikatan

	Party	Election Symbol	Leader	Seats Contested
	Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam		Vijayakant	232
				2

The two seats that DMDK contested in Ring symbol instead of nagara .

Source: Junior Vikatan

	Party	Election Symbol	Leader	Seats Contested
	Bharatiya Janata Party		C. P. Radhakrishnan	222

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.

Due to the loss of key allies after the previous election, theAll India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), ended up losing both the2004 Lok Sabha Election and the 2006 State Assembly Elections, to DMK led coalition that consisted ofDravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), and former allies of AIADMK,Indian National Congress, left parties (Communist Party of India,Communist Party of India (Marxist)) andPattali Makkal Katchi.

Summary of the 2006 May Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election results

Alliance/Party		Seats won	Change†	Popular Vote	Vote %	Adj. %‡
DMK+ alliance		163	+71	14,762,647	44.8%
DMK		96	+65	8,728,716	26.5%	46.0%
INC		34	+4	2,765,768	8.4%	43.5%
PMK		18	-2	1,863,749	5.7%	43.4%
CPI(M)		9	+3	872,674	2.7%	42.7%
CPI		6	+1	531,740	1.6%	40.4%
AIADMK+ alliance		69	-64	13,166,445	39.9%
AIADMK		61	-71	10,768,559	32.6%	40.8%
MDMK		6	+6	1,971,565	6.0%	37.7%
VCK		2	+2	426,321	1.3%	36.1%
Others		2	-7	5,062,463	15.3%
DMDK		1	+1	2,764,223	8.4%	8.5%
BJP		0	-6	666,823	2.0%	2.1%
IND		1	-2	995,345	3.0%	3.1%
Total		234	–	32,991,555	100%	–

†: Seat changes reflect the following mergers in parties from previous election.MADMK merged withBharatiya Janata Party in 2002.^[9]TMC merged with the national partyINC in 2002.^[10]UsilampattiFBL MLA L. Santhanam, joined AIADMK and contested inSholavandan, after being expelled from his party by newly elected actor-turned party leaderKarthik.^[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.

The following table lists the winners and margin of victory in all constituencies.^[8]