Tamil Nadu legislative assembly election, 2006

The thirteenth legislative assembly election, of Tamil Nadu was held on May 8, 2006. It was held for all 234 constituencies to elect the government in the state of for the following five years. The votes were counted three days later on May 11, 2006 and all the results were out by the end of the day. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led front won the elections and its leader, M Karunanidhi was sworn in as Chief Minister. He served his fifth term. Since no single party could gain a majority of its own in this election, DMK formed a coalition government with its allies, which is the first in the state since the 1952 election. 13th Assembly was instituted due to this election.

Polling

51659 polling stations were set up for electorate, that sized up to 46,603,827 eligible voters.

Political Parties and the Alliances

Tamil Nadu has a remarkable history of being dominated by the local parties, DMK or AIADMK, while the national parties have a strong presence in other states. The parties have resorted to forming alliances in the last few elections to take on each sides for power.

Striking changes in the alliances included the swap of MDMK from DMK led Democratic Progressive Alliance to AIADMK led alliance. While Dalit Panthers of India joined the AIADMK alliance, all other major parties in the fray such as PMK, Congress, CPM and CPI, aligned themselves with the DMK party.

There were two notable new parties — DMDK formed in September 2005 by actor-turned-politician Vijaykanth, and...
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