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1984 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election

← 1980 24 December 1984 1989 →
All 234 seats in theLegislature of Tamil Nadu 118 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	73.47%
First party Second party   Leader M. G. Ramachandran M. Karunanidhi Party AIADMK DMK Alliance INC+ Janata alliance +Left Front Leader's seat Andipatti did not contest Seats won 195 34 Seat change 29 25 Popular vote 11,681,221 8,021,293 Percentage 53.87% 37.00% Swing 4.95% 7.43%
1984 election map (by constituencies)
Alliance wise Result
Chief Minister before election M. G. Ramachandran AIADMK ElectedChief Minister M. G. Ramachandran AIADMK

Theeighth legislative assembly election forTamil Nadu was held on 24 December 1984.All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) won the election and its general secretary, incumbentM. G. Ramachandran (M.G.R) was sworn in as Chief Minister, for the third time. The election victory was mainly attributed to the sympathy wave created byIndira Gandhi's assassination and M.G.R's illness coupled withRajiv Gandhi's popularity. This is the last election M.G.R contested as he died in office in 1987. This is also the only general election whichM. Karunanidhi did not contest since 1957 until his death. As now, this is the last election where the ruling party gained seats.

Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984. During the same time,M. G. Ramachandran was diagnosed with kidney failure and admitted in a hospital inNew York City.Rajiv Gandhi assumed office immediately. Rajiv Gandhi felt that his Government required a fresh mandate from the people, and dissolved the Lok Sabha a year before its actual end of term, for fresh general elections. At the same time, Chief minister of Tamil Nadu, M.G.R recommended dissolution of Tamil Nadu State Assembly a year ahead of end of term, to use the sympathy wave of Congress, and also check his popularity.Indian National Congress (Indira) andAll India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam formed an alliance and contested both general elections.^[1][2]

National partiesBharatiya Janta Party,Communist Party of India,Communist Party of India (Marxist),Indian National Congress andJanata Party, state partiesAll India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam,Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Indian Congress (J), and registered unrecognised parties Ambedkar Kranti Dal, Gandhi Kamaraj National and Tamil Nadu Congress (K) contested the election.

The allocation of seats were done what was later dubbed, "The M.G.R formula". Where the regional party would contest 70% of the assembly seats and the national party would be given 70% of the Lok Sabha seats.This would be the last electionM.G.R contested, due to his death during his chief ministership.

M. G. Ramachandran was confined to the hospital. Video coverage of M.G.R recuperating in hospital along with Indira Gandhi's assassination were stitched together by AIADMK man in charge of campaigningR. M. Veerappan. The video was distributed and played across all over Tamil Nadu. Rajiv Gandhi visited cyclone-hit areas in Tamil Nadu which also boosted the alliance. The sympathy wave created by Indira's assassination, M.G.R's illness and Rajiv Gandhi's charisma helped the alliance sweep the election.^[1][2] DMK leaderM. Karunanidhi did not contest this election, due to the fact that the AIADMK founder M.G.R was admitted to a hospital in the U.S. andIndira Gandhi being assassinated.^[3]

No.	Party	Election Symbol	Leader	Seats
1.		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		M. G. Ramachandran	155
2.		Indian National Congress		M. Palaniyandi	73
3.		Gandhi Kamaraj National Congress		Kumari Ananthan	4

No.	Party	Election Symbol	Leader	Seats
1.		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		M. Karunanidhi	176
2.		Communist Party of India		P. Manickam	17
3.		Communist Party of India (Marxist)		A. Nallasivan	16
4.		Janata Party			16

Summary of the 1984 December Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly election results

Alliance/Party		Seats won	Change	Popular Vote	Vote %	Adj. %‡
AIADMK+ alliance		195	+29	11,681,221	53.9%
AIADMK		132	+3	8,030,809	37.0%	54.3%
INC(I)		61	+30	3,529,708	16.3%	54.5%
GKC		2	-4	120,704	0.6%	40.4%
DMK+ alliance		34	-25	8,021,293	37.0%
DMK		24	-13	6,362,770	29.3%	40.8%
CPI(M)		5	-6	597,622	2.8%	39.6%
JNP		3	+1	493,374	2.3%	36.4%
CPI		2	-7	567,527	2.6%	35.5%
Others		5	-4	1,983,959	9.1%
IND		4	-4	1,619,921	7.5%	7.9%
AKD		1	–	47,212	0.7%	57.2%
TNC		0	–	152,315	0.7%	34.9%
ICJ		0	–	110,121	0.5%	3.2%
BJP		0	–	54,390	0.3%	3.7%
Total		234	–	21,686,473	100%	–

After the General Elections held in December 1984, the Governor appointed Dr. M. G. Ramachandran as Chief Minister heading the new Government with effect from the forenoon of 10 February 1985. The Governor, on the advice of Hon. Chief Minister appointed 16 more Ministers on 14 February 1985.

After MGR's death, VR Neduncheziyan was sworn in as Acting Chief Minister. But, one week later, the party majority led by R.M.Veerappan supported MGR's widow Janaki to become Chief minister and she was sworn in as Chief minister. Janaki doubled as the finance minister in her Cabinet. The Governor gave V. N. Janaki Ramachandran 30 days time to prove majority support in the house. This was a problem because, 30 MLAs of her own party were supportingJ. Jayalalithaa to become the new Chief minister. Hence Janaki had the support of only 105 MLAs in the house of 234, as VR Neduncheziyan's 10 supporters chose to remain neutral and boycott the voting.

Hence, on the day of voting, Speaker PH pandiyan disqualified and dismissed 20 MLAs of opposition party DMK and 15 MLAs of AIADMK (Jayalalithaa faction ) from their MLA posts, due to demeaning behaviour in the house and thus announced that the majority was reduced to a mere 100, as the house then had only 199 members.

Before commencement of oral voting, violence erupted in the house and the speaker was injured. With bleeding head, he announced that Janaki had proved her majority with 105 MLAs and adjourned the house immediately. Then the members of the assembly were escorted out.

The Governor of state refused to accept this voting which was done under suspicious environment and recommended the Central government to dismiss the legislature and hold fresh general elections. The central government accepted the recommendation and the legislature was dissolved by the President.

• Elections in Tamil Nadu
• Legislature of Tamil Nadu
• Government of Tamil Nadu

• Election Commission of India

• State Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu
• 1980s in Tamil Nadu
• 1984 State Assembly elections in India

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