Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, 1989

Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, 1989

← 1984 21 January 1989 11 March 1989 1991 →
All 234 seats in the Legislature of Tamil Nadu*
First party Second party   Leader M. Karunanidhi J. Jayalalithaa Party DMK AIADMK Alliance NF ADMK+ Leader's seat Harbour Bodinayakkanur Seats won 150 27 Seat change 6 Popular vote 9,135,220 5,393,857 Percentage 37.89% 22.37% Swing 0.89% n/a   Third party Fourth party   Leader G. K. Moopanar Janaki Ramachandran Party INC AIADMK Leader's seat Papanasam Andipatti (lost) Seats won 26 1 (P.H.PANDIAN-Cheranmadevi Constituency) Seat change 35 95 Popular vote 4,780,714 2,214,965 Percentage 19.83% 9.19% Swing 3.55% n/a
1989 election map (by constituencies) *Note: The Infobox does not include the 2 seats won by merged ADMK coalition in March bye-election.
Chief Minister before election President's rule Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi DMK

President's rule

M. Karunanidhi
DMK

The ninth legislative assembly election of Tamil Nadu was held on 21 January 1989. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) won the election and its leader M. Karunanidhi, became the Chief Minister. It was his third term in office. The DMK was in power only for a short term, as it was dismissed on 31 January 1991 by the Indian Prime minister Chandra Shekhar using Article 356 of the Indian Constitution.

After the death of M. G. Ramachandran (MGR) in December 1987, his wife Janaki Ramachandran took over as Chief Minister. She lasted less than a month in power. The Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) split into two factions, one led by Janaki and the other by J. Jayalalithaa. The undivided ADMK legislature party had a strength of 132 including the Speaker P. H. Pandian. 97 of them supported the Janaki faction while 33 backed the Jayalalithaa group. Speaker Pandian was a supporter of Janaki. He did not recognize the Jayalalitha group as a separate party. On 28 January 1988, Janaki sought a vote of confidence in the Assembly. The Jayalalitha group abstained from the assembly and Pandian disqualified all of them. Earlier in December 1986, 10 MLAs of the DMK had been expelled from the Assembly by Mr Pandian for their participation in the anti-Hindi agitation of 1986, bringing down the strength of the house to 224. The disqualification of the 33 MLAs of the Jayalalitha group by P.H.Pandian further reduced the assembly's strength to 191. This enabled Janaki to win the vote of confidence with the support of only 99 members (with 8 opposing votes and 3 neutrals). Other opposition parties boycotted the vote - only 111 members were present during the motion. Though she won the vote of confidence, her government was dismissed by prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on 30 January citing the disruptions in the assembly. After a year of President's rule, elections were again held in January 1989. Both the ADMK factions claimed to be the official ADMK and requested the election commission to grant the "two leaves" symbol of the ADMK to them. However, the election commission refused to recognize either of them as the official ADMK and temporarily froze the "two leaves" symbol. Instead it awarded the "cock" symbol to the Jayalalitha faction (ADMK(JL)), while the Janaki faction (ADMK(JR)) was given the "two doves" symbol.