Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, 1991

Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, 1991

← 1989 24 June 1991 1996 →
All 234 seats in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
First party Second party   Leader J. Jayalalithaa M. Karunanidhi Party AIADMK DMK Alliance INC+ NF Leader's seat Bargur Harbour Seats won 225 7 Seat change 172 164 Popular vote 14,738,042 7,405,935 Percentage 59.79% 30.05%
1991 election map (by constituencies)
Chief Minister before election M. Karunanidhi DMK Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa AIADMK

M. Karunanidhi
DMK

J. Jayalalithaa
AIADMK

The tenth legislative assembly election of Tamil Nadu was held on 24 June 1991. The Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) – Indian National Congress (INC) alliance won the elections in a landslide and ADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa became the chief minister. This was her first term in office. The united strength of ADMK (after the merger of Jayalalitha and Janaki Ramachandran factions into a single party), the alliance with the Congress and the wave of public sympathy in the wake of Rajiv Gandhi assassination combined together to produce a massive victory for the ADMK. The M. Karunanidhi led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) was hurt by the public perception that it had close ties with LTTE (which was behind the Rajiv Gandhi assassination) and was routed in the elections winning only 2 out of the 234 seats.

On 30 January 1991, the DMK government which had come to power after winning the 1989, was dismissed by the Indian Prime minister Chandra Shekhar using Article 356 of the Indian Constitution. President's rule was imposed on Tamil Nadu from 31 January. The reason cited for the dismissal was the deterioration of law and order in the state and the DMK's alleged closeness to the LTTE. The union law minister Subramanian Swamy, cited (among others) the assassination of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) office bearers in Chennai on 19 June 1990 by the LTTE as the proof of collusion between the DMK government and the LTTE. The Samajwadi Janata Party government of Chandra Shekhar at the centre was dependent on the outside support of Rajiv Gandhi's Congress, which in turn was an ally of the ADMK in Tamil Nadu. The dismissal followed pressure on the Chandra Shekhar government by the Congress and ADMK to dismiss the DMK government. The Chandra Shekhar government fell on March 1991 after the Congress withdrew its outside support. Fresh elections for both the Indian parliament and Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly were scheduled for June 1991.