2001 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election

10 May 2001
All 234 seats in the Legislature 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 Secular Front 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 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 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 2 March 2002.

Background and Coalition

The incumbent party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, finished its full 5 terms, for the first time since winning the 1967 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 AIADMK, 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 AIADMK led front, with its general secretary J. Jayalalithaa, won by a landslide, sweeping across the state.^[1]

Aftermath

The coalition at the AIADMK 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 AIADMK, 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 AIADMK coalition after this election.

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	168
2.	Bharatiya Janata Party		S.P. Kripanidhi[7]	21
3.	Puthiya Tamilakam		K. Krishnasamy	10
4.	Makkal Tamil Desam Katchi		S. Kannappan	6
5.	Puthiya Needhi Katchi	Television	A.C. Shanmugham	5
6.	MGR Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	Ring	Su. Thirunavukkarasar	3
7.	MGR Kazhagam	Television	R. M. Veerappan	2
8.	Kongunadu Makkal Katchi		A.M. Raja[8]	1
9.	Thamilar Bhoomi	Bell	Ku. Pa. Krishnan[9]	1
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 Pattali Makkal Katchi		Dheeran	1
14.	Tamil Nadu Mutharaiyar Sangam		Kuzha Chelliah[9]	1
15.	Indian Uzhavar Uzhaippalar Katchi	Ring	'Vettavalam' Manikandan	1
16.	Thondar Congress	Toffee	Kumari Ananthan	1

Secular Democratic Progressive 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		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		Khader Mohideen[11]	1
9.	Tamilaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam		John Pandian	1
10.	Indian National League		M. Abdul Latheef[12]	1
11.	Independent		P.S. Arul[13]	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 Tamil 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%	–

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.
Sources: Election Commission of India^[15] and Rediff Newspaper ^[16]

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