2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
6 April 2021
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All 234 elected seats in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly 118 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 62,943,693 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 73.63% ( 1.18%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Structure of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly after the election | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tamil Nadu legislative assembly election was held on 6 April 2021 to elect the representatives of the 16th Tamil Nadu assembly. Elections were held for all the 234 constituencies in the assembly. The Election Commission of India announced the schedule for the elections on 26 February 2021. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) won the election, ending the decade-long reign of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), and M. K. Stalin was sworn in as the 12th Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
The poll was Tamil Nadu's first assembly election after the demise of the two most prominent chief ministers in the state's modern history, J. Jayalalithaa of the AIADMK, and M. Karunanidhi of the DMK, who died in 2016 and 2018, respectively. With the AIADMK winning the 2016 election, Jayalalithaa had become the chief minister and served for almost six months before she died. Upon her death, O. Panneerselvam took charge as the chief minister, shortly after which Edappadi K. Palaniswami was sworn in as the chief minister in 2017, and served till the end of the 15th assembly's tenure.
The DMK led the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA), consisting of the Indian National Congress, the Communist parties and others, and named Stalin as its candidate for the chief minister's office. The AIADMK joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling party of the Union Government of India, and projected Palanisami as its chief ministerial candidate. The polling was held with COVID-19 safety guidelines, and the state recorded a voter turnout of 73.63%. Surveys before and after the polls predicted a win for the DMK-led SPA. The votes were counted on 2 May 2021, and the SPA won 159 seats, with the DMK winning in 133 constituencies, securing an absolute majority for the first time in 25 years. The NDA won 75 seats, out of which 66 were won by the AIADMK. The DMK formed the state government for the sixth time, and the M. K. Stalin ministry was sworn in on 7 May 2021.