2001 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election

← 1996 10 May 2001 2006 →
All 234 seats in theLegislature of Tamil Nadu 118 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	59.07% ( 7.88%)
First party Second party   Leader J. Jayalalithaa M. Karunanidhi Party AIADMK DMK Alliance SDPF+LF NDA Leader's seat Andipatti (2002) Chepauk Seats won 196 37 Seat change 138 138 Popular vote 14,043,980 10,841,157 Percentage 50.09% 38.67% Swing 23.01% 15.10%
Partywise results by constituency Alliance wise results by constituency
Alliance wise Result
CM before election M. Karunanidhi DMK ElectedCM J.Jayalalithaa O. Panneerselvam AIADMK

Thetwelfth legislative assembly election of Tamil Nadu was held on 10 May 2001.All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)-led front won the elections and its general secretary,J. Jayalalithaa was sworn in as Chief Minister, even though she could not legally run as MLA in this election. She was unanimously nominated as Chief Minister by her party and was ready to serve her second term. But due to criminal and corruption charges from her first term, on 21 September 2001, a five-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court of India ruled in a unanimous verdict that "a person who is convicted for a criminal offense and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years cannot be appointed the Chief Minister of a State under Article 164 (1) read with (4) and cannot continue to function as such". Thereby, the bench decided that "in the appointment of Dr. J. Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister there has been a clear infringement of a Constitutional provision and that a writ of quo warranto must issue". In effect, her appointment as Chief Minister was declared null and invalid with retrospective effect. Therefore, technically, she was not the Chief Minister in the period between 14 May 2001 and 21 September 2001. After her resignation on 21 September 2001, she put inO. Panneerselvam, as the official 13th Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, until she could clear up the charges from her first term, so she can take up the mantle of Chief Minister officially, on 2 March 2002.

The incumbent party,Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, finished its full 5 terms, for the first time since winning the1971 state assembly election. According to various sources and exit polls, the incumbent party was supposed to retain power, due to the popularity of its leaderM. Karunanidhi. Due to the anti-incumbency factor, problems of development cited by the people in many rural areas ofTamil Nadu, and a broad coalition formed by AIADMK, includingTamil Maanila Congress, who left the alliance ofDravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), because they joinedBJP and theNational Democratic Alliance (NDA),Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK),Indian National Congress and the left parties, the AIADMK led front, with its general secretaryJ. Jayalalithaa, won by a landslide, sweeping across the state.^[1]

Source: Various Sources^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

No.	Party	Election Symbol	Leader	Seats
1.		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		J. Jayalalithaa	140
2.		Tamil Maanila Congress		G. K. Moopanar	32
3.		Indian National Congress		E. V. K. S. Elangovan	14
4.		Pattali Makkal Katchi		Dr. Ramdoss	27
5.		Communist Party of India (Marxist)		N. Sankaraiah	8
6.		Communist Party of India		R. Nallakannu	8
7.		All India Forward Bloc		L. Santhanam	1
8.		Indian Union Muslim League		K. M. Kader Mohideen[7]	1
9.		Indian National League		M. Abdul Latheef[8]	1
10.		Independent		P. S. Arul[9]	1
Unrecognized party, whose candidates ran under the AIADMK ticket
11.		Tamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam		B. John Pandian	1

Source:Oneindia news

No.	Party	Election Symbol	Leader	Seats
1.		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		M. Karunanidhi	167
2.		Bharatiya Janata Party		S.P. Kripanidhi[10]	21
3.		Puthiya Tamilagam		K. Krishnasamy	10
4.		Makkal Tamil Desam Katchi		S. Kannappan	6
5.		Puthiya Needhi Katchi	Television and	A.C. Shanmugham	5
6.		MGR Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		Su. Thirunavukkarasar	3
7.		MGR Kazhagam	Television and	R. M. Veerappan	2
8.		Indian Uzhavar Uzhaippalar Katchi		'Vettavalam' Manikandan	1
9.		Thondar Congress	Toffee	Kumari Ananthan	1
10.		Thamilar Bhoomi	Bell	Ku. Pa. Krishnan[11]	1
Unregistered and Unrecognized party, whose candidates ran under the DMK ticket
11.		Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi		Thol. Thirumavalavan	8
12.		Tamizhaga Muslim Iykkya Jamaat		J. M. Aaron Rashid	3
13.		TMC Jananayaka Peravai (DMK Friends group)		P. Chidambaram[12]	2
14.		Tamil Pattali Makkal Katchi		Dheeran	1
15.		Tamil Nadu Mutharaiyar Sangam		Kuzha Chelliah[11]	1
16.		Kongunadu Makkal Katchi		A.M. Raja[13]	1
17.		All India Moovendar Munnani Kazhagam		Dr. Sethuraman	1

Source:Oneindia News

No.	Party	Election Symbol	Leader	Seats
1.		Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		Vaiko	213

Summary of the 2001 MayAssemblyelection results inTamil Nadu

Alliance/Party		Seats won	Change	Popular Vote	Vote %	Adj. %‡
AIADMK+ alliance		196	+138	14,043,980	50.1%
AIADMK		132	+127	8,815,387	31.4%	52.1%
TMC(M)		23	-15	1,885,726	6.7%	47.5%
PMK		20	+16	1,557,500	5.6%	46.8%
INC		7	+7	696,205	2.5%	45.4%
CPI(M)		6	+4	470,736	1.7%	48.2%
CPI		5	-3	444,710	1.6%	48.5%
IND		2	+2	103,971	0.4%	46.6%
AIFB		1	+1	39,248	0.1%	43.3%
MUL		0	-1	30,497	0.1%	41.7%
DMK+ alliance		37	-138	10,841,157	38.7%
DMK		31	-142	8,669,864	30.9%	39.0%
BJP		4	+3	895,352	3.2%	38.7%
MADMK		2	+1	129,474	0.5%	37.1%
PT		0	–	355,171	1.3%	33.8%
MTD		0	–	257,126	0.9%	40.9%
PNK		0	–	196,740	0.7%	33.6%
MGRK		0	–	136,916	0.5%	40.8%
TB		0	–	45,002	0.2%	40.0%
CNMK		0	–	40,421	0.1%	32.4%
IND		0	–	115,091	0.4%	36.7%
Others		1	–	3,192,598	11.4%
MDMK		0	–	1,304,469	4.7%	5.1%
IND		1	–	1,509,378	6.2%	6.3%
Total		234	–	28,037,314	100%	–

• Thanga Tamilselvan, AIADMK legislator from Andipatti, resigned his seat in 2002, to enable Jayalalithaa to contest here. This enabled her to win in a by election in Andipatti, and be Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. She succeededO. Panneerselvam who took over as chief minister for 6 months, until Jayalalithaa's corruption charges were cleared in court.^[17]
• Due to the death of V. Perumal, actor turned politicianRadha Ravi (son ofM.R. Radha) was fielded by AIADMK, and defeated the DMK candidate Subramanian, in a by-election, increasing the majority of the AIADMK.^[18]
• During 31 May 2002, By-election,A. Boovaraghamoorthy of the AIADMK, defeatedD. Parvendhan of PMK, which resulted in AIADMK to pick upAcharapakkam (SC).^[19]

The coalition at the AIADMK led-center would prove to be short-lived, since in less than a year,Pattali Makkal Katchi, and its leaderDr. Ramdoss, left the coalition, citing authoritarian type rule byJ. Jayalalithaa (It is noteworthy that this is the first time in Indian history that a person has taken oath as the Chief Minister of a state the day after the counting of votes has been completed.) (Former election commissioner TN Seshan & Vazhappaddu Rammurthi recommended governor to make Jayalalithaa as CM^[20]). Also theTamil Maanila Congress, who proved to be an important ally for the victory of AIADMK, would later merge withIndian National Congress, who would later support DMK led front in future elections. The left parties would also end up joining the DMK led front, leaving the AIADMK coalition after this election.

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

• Thirunavukkarasu, R. (2001). "Election 2001: Changing Equations".Economic and Political Weekly.36 (27):2486–2489.JSTOR 4410818.

• Election Commission of India
• Rediff – Graphic: How Amma swept TN in '01

• State Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu
• 2000s in Tamil Nadu
• 2001 State Assembly elections in India
• May 2001 in India

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