Tamil Nadu Assembly polls | Where the sun rose and leaves faded

An overview of the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly election results.

The DMK alliance swept the northern and delta regions and also performed well in the south, while the AIADMK managed to retain seats in its stronghold of western Tamil Nadu with considerable success.

 

Constituency-wise results of 2016 and 2021 Assembly elections

Constituency-wise map of Tamil Nadu showing the seat share in 2016 Assembly elections.

 

Constituency-wise map of Tamil Nadu showing the seat share in 2021 Assembly elections.

 

Tamil Nadu seat share

 

Poor representation of women

This year saw the lowest representation of women since since 2001.

While 376 women were in the fray, 12 have been elected.

6 from DMK

3 from AIADMK

2 from BJP

1 from Congress

 

The table shows the performance of key parties in 2021 and 2016

In 2021

Party	Contested	Won	Total Vote Share (%)	Contested Vote Share (%)
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	188	133	37.7	46.45
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	191	66	33.29	40.48
Indian National Congress	25	18	4.27	41.36
Pattali Makkal Katchi	23	5	3.8	37.61
Bharatiya Janata Party	20	4	2.62	34.26
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi	6	4	0.99	42.44
Communist Party of India (Marxist)	6	2	0.85	35.17
Communist Party of India	6	2	1.09	43.28
Naam Tamilar Katchi	234		6.58	6.58
Makkal Needhi Maiam	180		2.62	3.43
Amma Makkal Munnettra Kazagam	165		2.35	3.33
Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam	60		0.43	1.68

 

In 2016

Party	Contested	Won	Total Vote Share (%)	Contested Vote Share (%)
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	180	89	31.64	41.35
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	234	136	40.77	40.77
Indian National Congress	41	8	6.42	36.74
Pattali Makkal Katchi	232		5.32	5.41
Bharatiya Janata Party	188		2.84	3.57
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi	25		0.77	6.98
Communist Party of India (Marxist)	25		0.71	6.8
Communist Party of India	25		0.79	7.25
Naam Tamilar Katchi	231		1.06	1.08
Makkal Needhi Maiam	-	-
Amma Makkal Munnettra Kazagam	-	-
Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam	104		2.39	5.42

The table shows the constituencies that flipped and the ones that were retained by both the major alliances

	Delta	North	South	West	Total
Retained by AIADMK+	3	7	12	33	55
Flipped from DMK+ to AIADMK+	1	5	6	8	20
Retained by DMK+	15	39	20	4	78
Flipped from AIADMK+ to DMK+	22	27	20	12	81
Total	41	78	58	57	234

 

District-wise breakdown of winners

 

North

 

South

 

Delta

 

West

 

 

Margins widen

The victory margins widened in the 2021 election compared to 2016

Margin	(2021)	(2016)
< 1000	8	16
1000 to 5000	31	37
5000 to 10000	30	44
10000 to 20000	51	74
20000 to 50000	89	59
> 50000	25	3

 

25,151 average winning margin for parties in DMK alliance in 2021.

18,044 average winning margin for parties in AIADMK alliance.

I. Periyasamy of DMK won Athoor with the widest margin of 1,35,571 votes.

J. Karunanithi of DMK won T. Nagar with the narrowest margin of 137 votes.