Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, 2016

Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, 2016

16 May 2016 (2016-05-16)
All 234 elected seats in the Legislature of Tamil Nadu 118 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader J. Jayalalithaa M. Karunanidhi Party AIADMK DMK Alliance AIADMK Alliance DMK Alliance Leader since February 1989[1] 10 February 1969[2] Leader's seat Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar Tiruvarur Last election 150 seats 23 seats Seats won 136 98 Seat change 14 66 Popular vote 17,617,060 17,175,374 Percentage 41 40 Swing 2.4 9.2
2016 Election Map (by Constituencies)
Chief Minister before election J. Jayalalithaa AIADMK Elected Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa AIADMK

The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election was held on 16 May 2016 for the 232 seats (except Thanjavur and Aravakurichi) of the Legislative Assembly in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. AIADMK under J. Jayalalithaa won the elections and became the first ruling party to be re-elected in Tamil Nadu since 1984, though with a reduced majority.^[3] DMK won half of the seats it contested but its allies performed poorly; notably, the Indian National Congress won 16% of the seats they contested and the alliance lost due to its poor performance.^[4][5][6][7] The votes were counted on 19 May 2016.^[8][9] In the previous election in 2011, AIADMK, under the leadership of Jayalalithaa, won a simple majority and formed the government, while DMDK chief Vijayakanth served as the Leader of Opposition until January 2016. This is the last election Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi contested as they both died in office later.

Background

By the requirement, state assembly election must be held at an interval of five years or whenever it is dissolved by the president. The previous 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 16th legislative assembly was organised and conducted by the Election 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.^[10]

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 have Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines attached along with EVMs.^[11] Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines will be in place in 4,000 booths.^[12]

Tamil Nadu

Demographics

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 to Scheduled Castes (SC) and 7,94,697 people constituting 1.10% of the population belonged to Scheduled tribes (ST).^[15][16][17] Other Backward Classes (OBCs) form 68% of the population.^[18] 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.^[19]

Schedule

The elections were held on 16 May 2016,^[20] with vote counting taking place on 19 May.^[21] The elections in Kerala and Puducherry also took place on 16 May^[22] but polling in two of the Tamil Nadu constituencies was postponed due to reports of voters being bribed.^[23]

Campaign to vote

To ensure that the electorate exercise their right to vote, the Election 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 personalities Suriya, Ashwin and Karthik, whose campaigning videos were filmed and shared on social media.^[24] The Election Commission also partnered with Twitter, 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.^[25] Twitter and Facebook collaborated with ECI in its awareness campaign on striving for 100 per cent voting in the polls.^[26][27]

Parties and Alliances

AIADMK Alliance

All the parties contested on "two leaves" symbol.^[28]

Sl.No:	Name of the Party	Party Flag	Party Leader	Seats
1	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		J.Jayalalithaa	227
2	Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi		Thamimun Ansari	2[29]
3	Republican Party of India		C. K. Thamizharasan	1
4	Samathuva Makkal Katchi		R. Sarathkumar	1
5	Tamil Nadu Kongu Ilaingar Peravai		U. Thaniyarasu	1
6	Mukkulathor Pulipadai		Karunas	1
7	Tamil Maanila Muslim League		Sheik Dawood	1

DMK Alliance

Sl.No:	Name of the Party	Party Flag	Party Leader	Seats
1	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam[30]		Karunanidhi	176
2	Indian National Congress		Su. Thirunavukkarasar	41
3	Indian Union Muslim League		K.M. Khader Mohideen	5
4	Manithaneya Makkal Katchi		M. H. Jawahirullah	4
5	Puthiya Tamilakam		Chandra Kumar	3
6	Perunthalaivar Makkal Katchi		N.R. Dhanapalan	1
7	Tamil Nadu Peasants and Workers Party		Pon. Kumar	1
8	Samuga Samathuva Padai		V. Sivakami	1

People's Welfare Front Alliance

Sl.No:	Name of the Party	Party Flag	Party Leader	Seats
1	Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam[31]		Vijayakanth	104
2	Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		Vaiko	28
3	Communist Party of India		Mutharasan	25
4	Communist Party of India (Marxist)		G. Ramakrishnan	25
5	Tamil Manila Congress		G K Vasan	26
6	Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi		Thol. Thirumavalavan	25

National Democratic Alliance

Sl.No:	Name of the Party	Party Flag	Party Leader
1	Bharatiya Janata Party		Tamilisai Soundararajan
2	Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi		T. R. Pachamuthu

Parties not in any coalition

Sl. No:	Name of the Party	Party Flag	Party Leader
1	Pattali Makkal Katchi		Dr. Ramdoss
2	Naam Tamilar Katchi		Seeman
3	Tamilnadu Youth Party (TNYP)
4	Welfare Party of India		S. N. Sikkandar
5	Social Democratic Party of India		Mr.Thehlan Baqavi
6	Anaithu Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam		Pachathanni Manickam I.P.S
7	Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi		Panruti T. Velmurugan.
8	The Future India Party		Subi
9	All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen

Candidates

On 4 April, AIADMK released its candidate list for Tamil Nadu.^[32] On 14 April, DMK released its candidate list for Tamil Nadu.^[33]

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 openly Intersex & Genderqueer person to do so. Gopi contested on the ticket of newly launched outfit Anaithu Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) for Madurai North. He secured 14th place out of 21 candidates by securing 1% vote.^{[34][35][36][37]}

Manifestos

DMK released its election manifesto on 10 April 2016.^[38][39] Bharatiya Janata Party released its election manifesto on 21 April 2016.^[40] On 23 March 2016, Naam Tamilar Katchi published its 316-page election manifesto 2016, a complete plan to develop TamilNadu.^[41][42] Tamil Nadu Congress Committee released its election manifesto on 27 April 2016.^[43] Pattali Makkal Katchi released its draft election manifesto on 15 September 2015 and final election manifesto on 15 April 2016.^[44] AIADMK released its election manifesto on 5 May 2016.^{[45] [46]}

Voter Turnout

Voter turnout for the 232 constituencies on May 16 was 74.26%.^[47] 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%.^[48][49]

Exit polls

Results

The ruling ADMK, beating most of the exit polls,^[56][57] was able to retain power with a comfortable majority and became the first party to win consecutive elections since 1984, a feat achieved by MGR.^[58][59]

 Summary of the 2016 Tamil Nadu legislative election^[60]

Party		Abbr	Alliance	Votes	%	Seats
						Contested	Won	+/-
	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	ADMK		17,617,060	41.06%	227	134	16
	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	DMK	DMK	13,670,511	31.86%	176	89	66
	Indian National Congress	INC	DMK	2,774,075	6.47%	41	8	3
	Indian Union Muslim League	IUML	DMK	313,808	0.73%	5	1	1
	Pattali Makkal Katchi	PMK		2,300,775	5.36%	232	0	3
	Bharatiya Janata Party	BJP	NDA	1,228,692	2.86%	232	0
	Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam	DMDK	PWF	1,034,384	2.41%	104	0	29
	Independents	IND		617,907	1.44%	232	0
	Naam Tamilar Katchi	NTK		458,104	1.07%	232	0
	Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	MDMK	PWF	373,713	0.87%	28	0
	Communist Party of India	CPI	PWF	340,290	0.79%	25	0	9
	Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi	VCK	PWF	331,849	0.77%	25	0
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	CPM	PWF	307,303	0.72%	25	0	10
	Tamil Maanila Congress	TMC(M)	PWF	230,711	0.54%	26	0
	Puthiya Tamilagam	PT	DMK	219,830	0.51%	4	0	2
	Manithaneya Makkal Katchi	MAMAK	DMK	197,150	0.46%	4	0	2
	Kongunadu Makkal Desia Katchi	KMDK		167,560	0.39%	n/a	0
	Bahujan Samaj Party	BSP		97,823	0.23%	n/a	0
	Social Democratic Party of India	SDPI		65,978	0.15%	n/a	0
	None of the above	NOTA		561,244	1.31%	232	–	–
Total				42,908,767	100.00%	232	232	2

Election to two assembly constituencies were cancelled by the Election Commission on confirmed reports of bribing voters in Aravakurichi and Thanjavur.^[61][62]

Controversies

On 3 May, News 7 and Dinamalar released an opinion poll giving an edge for DMK over AIADMK. But some editions of Dinamalar carried a statement on the first page distancing itself from the surveys.^[63] In an instance VVPAT was helpful in resolving an issue pertaining to a tally of votes in Kancheepuram (State Assembly Constituency) as the number of votes entered in the Form 17C of a polling booth and the total number of votes recorded in the EVM control unit of that booth did not tally.^[64]

By-Election

On 26 October 2016, the Election Commission announced that the election for Thiruparankundram, Aravakurichi and Thanjavur constituencies would be held on 19 November 2016.^[68] The outcome was:

See also

• Elections in India
• 2016 elections in India

References

External links

• Chief Electoral Officer, Tamil Nadu
• Election Commission of India