2016 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election

← 2011 16 May 2016 (2016-05-16) (232 Seats) 19 November 2016 (2 Seats) 2021 →
All 234 elected seats in theTamil Nadu Legislative Assembly 118 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	74.81% ( 3.48pp)
First party Second party   Leader J. Jayalalithaa M. Karunanidhi Party AIADMK DMK Alliance Unallied UPA+DPA Leader since 1989 1969 Leader's seat Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar Tiruvarur Last election 203 seats (alliance) 31 seats (alliance) Seats won 136 98 Seat change 67 67 Popular vote 17,617,060 17,175,374 Percentage 40.88% 39.85% Swing 10.14pp 0.35pp
Party wise results Alliance wise results
Chief Minister before election J. Jayalalithaa AIADMK ElectedChief Minister J. Jayalalithaa AIADMK

TheFifteenth Legislative Assembly Election was held on 16 May 2016 for the 232 seats (exceptThanjavur andAravakurichi for which held on 26 October 2016) of theLegislative Assembly in the state ofTamil Nadu inIndia. TheAIADMK underJ. Jayalalithaa won the elections and became the first ruling party to be re-elected in Tamil Nadu since 1984, though with a simple majority.^[1] TheDMK won half of the seats it contested but its allies performed poorly; notably, theIndian National Congress won 16% of the seats they contested, and the alliance lost due to its poor performance.^[2][3][4][5] The votes were counted on 19 May 2016.^[6] In theprevious election in 2011, AIADMK had, under the leadership of Jayalalithaa, won a thumping majority and formed the government, whileDMDK chiefVijayakanth served as the Leader of Opposition until January 2016. This was the last election that J. Jayalalithaa and M. Karunanidhi would contest, as they died later in 2016 and 2018, respectively.

By the requirement, state assembly election must be held at an interval of five years or whenever it is dissolved by thepresident. Theprevious 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 theElection Commission of India (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.^[7]

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 haveVoter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines attached along withEVMs.^[8]Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines will be in place in 4,000 booths.^[9]

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 toScheduled Castes (SC) and 7,94,697 people constituting 1.10% of the population belonged toScheduled tribes (ST).^[12][13][14]Other Backward Classes (OBCs) form 68% of the population.^[15] As per the religious census of 2011, Tamil Nadu had 87.6%Hindus, 5.9%Muslims, 6.1%Christians, 0.1%Jains and 0.3% following other religions or no religion.^[16]

The elections were held on 6 May 2016,^[17] with vote counting taking place on 19 May.^[18] The elections in Kerala and Puducherry also took place on 16 May^[19] but polling in two of the Tamil Nadu constituencies was postponed due to reports of voters being bribed.^[20]

To ensure that the electorate exercise their right to vote, theElection Commission of India (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 personalitiesSuriya,Ashwin andKarthik, whose campaigning videos were filmed and shared on social media.^[21] The Election Commission also partnered with Twitter(X) 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.^[22]Twitter andFacebook collaborated with ECI in its awareness campaign on striving for 100 per cent voting in the polls.^[23][24]

Party/Alliance				Symbol	Leader	Contesting seats
	AIADMK-led Alliance		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		J. Jayalalithaa	227
			Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi		Thamimum Ansari	2[25]
			Republican Party of India		C. K. Thamizharasan	1
			All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi		R. Sarathkumar	1
			Tamil Nadu Kongu Ilaingar Peravai		U. Thaniyarasu	1
			Mukkulathor Pulipadai		Karunas	1
			Tamil Maanila Muslim League		Sheik Dawood	1
	SPA		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam[26]		M. Karunanidhi	176
			Indian National Congress		E. V. K. S. Elangovan	41
			Indian Union Muslim League		K. M. Khader Mohideen	5
			Manithaneya Makkal Katchi		M. H. Jawahirullah	4
			Puthiya Tamilagam		Dr.K. Krishnasamy	4
			Perunthalaivar Makkal Katchi		N. R. Dhanapalan	1
			Tamil Nadu Peasants and Workers Party		Pon. Kumar	1
			Samuga Samathuva Padai		V. Sivakami	1
	People's Welfare Front		Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam[27]		Vijayakanth	105
			Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		Vaiko	28
			Tamil Maanila Congress		G. K. Vasan	26
			Communist Party of India		Mutharasan	25
			Communist Party of India (Marxist)		G. Ramakrishnan	25
			Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi		Thol. Thirumavalavan	25
	National Democratic Alliance		Bharatiya Janata Party		Tamilisai Soundararajan	165
			Akila Indhiya Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam			24
			Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi		T. R. Paarivendhar	45

Sl. No:	Name of the Party	Party Symbol	Party Leader
1	Pattali Makkal Katchi		Anbumani Ramadoss
2	Naam Tamilar Katchi		Seeman
3	Tamil Nadu Youth Party (TNYP)
4	Welfare Party of India		S. N. Sikkandar
5	Social Democratic Party of India		Thehlan Baqavi
6	Anaithu Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam		Pachathanni Manickam I.P.S
7	Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi		Panruti T. Velmurugan.
8	All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen		Asaduddin Owaisi
9	Kongunadu Makkal Desia Katchi		E.R. Eswaran

On 4 April,AIADMK released its candidate list for Tamil Nadu.^[28] On 14 April,DMK released its candidate list for Tamil Nadu.^[29]

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 openlyIntersex &Genderqueer person to do so. Gopi contested on the ticket of newly launched outfit Anaithu Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam for Madurai North. He secured 14th place out of 21 candidates.^{[30][31][32][33]}

DMK released its election manifesto on 10 April 2016.^[34][35]Bharatiya Janata Party released its election manifesto on 21 April 2016.^[36] On 23 March 2016,Naam Tamilar Katchi published its 316-page election manifesto 2016, a complete plan to develop Tamil Nadu.^[37][38]Tamil Nadu Congress Committee released its election manifesto on 27 April 2016.^[39]Pattali Makkal Katchi released its draft election manifesto on 15 September 2015 and final election manifesto on 15 April 2016.^[40]AIADMK released its election manifesto on 5 May 2016.^[41][42]

Voter turnout for the 232 constituencies on 16 May was 74.81%.^[43] 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%.^[44][45]

The ruling AIADMK, beating most of the exit polls,^[52][53] was able to retain power with a comfortable majority and became the first party to win consecutive elections since1984, a feat achieved byM. G. Ramachandran.Jayalalithaa buckedAnti-incumbency trend and cyclic change of governments in the state that hadn't voted back a government in last three decades.^[54][55][56]

Summary of the 2016 Tamil Nadu legislative election^[57]

Party/Alliance				Votes	%	Seats
						Contested	Won	+/-
	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)			17,806,490	40.88%	234	136	14
	DPA		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)	13,670,511	31.39%	178	89	66
			Indian National Congress	2,774,075	6.47%	41	8	3
			Indian Union Muslim League	313,808	0.73%	5	1	1
			Puthiya Tamilagam	219,830	0.51%	4	0	2
			Manithaneya Makkal Katchi	197,150	0.46%	4	0	2
		Total		17,175,374	39.40	234	98	66
	People's Welfare Front (PWF)		Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam	1,037,431	2.41%	105	0	29
			Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	373,713	0.87%	28	0
			Communist Party of India	340,290	0.79%	25	0	9
			Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi	331,849	0.77%	25	0
			Communist Party of India (Marxist)	307,303	0.72%	25	0	10
			Tamil Maanila Congress	230,711	0.54%	26	0
		Total		2,621,297	6.1	234	0	48
	Pattali Makkal Katchi			2,302,564	5.36%	234	0	3
	Bharatiya Janata Party			1,235,660	2.86%	234	0
	Naam Tamilar Katchi			460,089	1.07%	234	0
	All India Forward Bloc			44,546	0.10%	33	0	1
	Kongunadu Makkal Desia Katchi			167,560	0.39%	72	0
	Bahujan Samaj Party			97,823	0.23%	n/a	0
	Social Democratic Party of India			65,978	0.15%	n/a	0
	Independents			617,907	1.44%	234	0
	None of the above			5,65,077	1.31%	234	–	–
Total				4,35,56,184	100.00	-	234	-
Valid votes				4,35,56,184	99.93
Invalid votes				29,507	0.07
Votes cast / turnout				4,35,85,691	74.81
Abstentions				1,46,74,574	25.19
Registered voters				5,82,60,506

Election to two assembly constituencies were cancelled by the Election Commission on confirmed reports of bribing voters inAravakurichi andThanjavur. Elections were held later there on 26 October 2016^[58][59]