Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, 2001

Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, 2001

May 10, 2001
All 234 seats in the Legislature of Tamil Nadu
First party Second party   Leader J. Jayalalithaa M. Karunanidhi Party AIADMK DMK Alliance INC+ 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%
2001 election map (by constituencies)
Chief Minister before election M. Karunanidhi DMK Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa O. Panneerselvam AIADMK

The twelfth legislative assembly election of Tamil Nadu was held on May 10, 2001. All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK)-led front won the elections and its leader, 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 September 21, 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 offence and sentenced to imprisonment for a period of 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 Ms. 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 May 14, 2001 and September 21, 2001. After her resignation on September 21, 2001, she put in O. 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 March 2, 2002.

Background and Coalition

The incumbent party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, finished its full 5 terms, for the first time since winning the 1971 state assembly election. According to various sources and exit polls, the incumbent party was supposed to retain power, due to the popularity of its leader M. Karunanidhi. Due to the anti-incumbency factor, problems of development cited by the people in many areas of Tamil Nadu, and a broad coalition formed by ADMK, including Tamil Maanila Congress, who left the alliance of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), because they joined BJP and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Indian National Congress and the left parties, the ADMK led front, with its leader J. Jayalalithaa, won by a landslide, sweeping across the state.^[1]

The coalition at the ADMK led-center would prove to be short-lived, since in less than a year, Pattali Makkal Katchi, and its leader Dr. Ramdoss, left the coalition, citing authoritarian type rule by J. Jayalalithaa. Also the Tamil Maanila Congress, who proved to be an important ally for the victory of ADMK, would later merge with Indian 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 ADMK after this election. No more election have been conducted by DMK.

Seat allotments

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

DMK-NDA Alliance

No.	Party	Election Symbol	Leader	Seats
1.	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		M. Karunanidhi	169
2.	Bharatiya Janata Party		Dr. S.P. Kripanidhi[7]	21
3.	Puthiya Tamilakam		K. Krishnasamy	10
4.	Makkal Tamil Desam Katchi		S. Kannappan	6
5.	Puthiya Needhi Katchi		A.C. Shanmugham	5
6.	MGR Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		Su. Thirunavukkarasar	3
7.	MGR Kazhagam		R.M. Veerappan	2
8.	Kongunadu Makkal Katchi		A.M. Raja[8]	1
9.	Thamilar Bhoomi		Ku.Pa. Krishnan[9]	1
Unregistered parties, whose candidates ran under the DMK ticket
10.	Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi		Thol. Thirumavalavan	8
11.	Tamizhaga Muslim Iykkya Jamaat		J.M. Haroon	3
12.	Congress Jananayaka Peravai		P. Chidambaram[10]	2
13.	Tamil Nadu Mutharaiyar Sangam		Kuzha Chelliah[9]	1
Unregistered parties, whose candidates ran as an independent
14.	Indian Uzhavar Uzhaippalar Katchi		'Vettavalam' Manikandan	1
15.	Thondar Congress		Kumari Ananthan	1

AIADMK-INC Alliance

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		G.K. Moopanar[11]	14
4.	Pattali Makkal Katchi		Dr. Ramdoss	27
5.	Communist Party of India (Marxist)		G.Ramakrishnan	8
6.	Communist Party of India		Tha. Pandian	8
7.	All India Forward Bloc		L. Santhanam	1
8.	Indian Union Muslim League		Khader Mohideen[12]	1
Unregistered party, whose candidate ran under the AIADMK ticket
9.	Tamizhaga Makkal Katchi		John Pandian	1
Unregistered parties, whose candidates ran as an independent
10.	Indian National League		M. Abdul Latheef[13]	1
11.	Independent		P.S. Arul[14]	1

Opinion polling

Results

Results by Pre-Poll Alliance

Election map of results based on parties. Colours are based on the results table on the left

 Summary of the 2001 May Assembly election results in TN
Sources: Election Commission of India and Rediff Newspaper ^[16][17]

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%	–

Note: Parties that contested under "rising-sun" or "two-leaves" symbol are listed as DMK or AIADMK respectively. Parties that ran their candidates as independents, (e.g. Indian Uzhavar Uzhaippalar Katchi and Thondar Congress in DMK alliance) are listed as IND for their respective alliance.
‡: Vote % reflects the percentage of votes the party received compared to the entire electorate that voted in this election. Adjusted (Adj.) Vote %, reflects the average % of votes the party received per constituency that they contested.

See also

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

References

Further reading

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

External links

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