The twelfth legislative assembly election of Tamil Nadu was held on 10 May 2001. All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)-led front won the elections and its general secretary, J. Jayalalithaa was sworn in as Chief Minister, even though she could not legally run as MLA in this election. She was unanimously nominated as Chief Minister by her party and was ready to serve her second term. But due to criminal and corruption charges from her first term, on 21 September 2001, a five-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court of India ruled in a unanimous verdict that "a person who is convicted for a criminal offense and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years cannot be appointed the Chief Minister of a State under Article 164 (1) read with (4) and cannot continue to function as such". Thereby, the bench decided that "in the appointment of Dr. J. Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister there has been a clear infringement of a Constitutional provision and that a writ of quo warranto must issue". In effect, her appointment as Chief Minister was declared null and invalid with retrospective effect. Therefore, technically, she was not the Chief Minister in the period between 14 May 2001 and 21 September 2001. After her resignation on 21 September 2001, she put in O. Panneerselvam, as the official 13th Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, until she could clear up the charges from her first term, so she can take up the mantle of Chief Minister officially, on 2 March 2002.
The coalition at the AIADMK led-center would prove to be short-lived, since in less than a year, Pattali Makkal Katchi, and its leader Dr. Ramdoss, left the coalition, citing authoritarian type rule by J. Jayalalithaa. Also the Tamil Maanila Congress, who proved to be an important ally for the victory of AIADMK, would later merge with Indian National Congress, who would later support DMK led front in future elections. The left parties would also end up joining the DMK led front, leaving the AIADMK coalition after this election.
Seat allotments
Source: Various Sources[2][3][4][5][6]
Secular Democratic Progressive Alliance
DMK-NDA Alliance
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Opinion polling
Exit polls
Results
Results by Pre-Poll Alliance
Election map of results based on parties. Colours are based on the results table on the left
Note: Parties that contested under "rising-sun" or "two-leaves" symbol are listed as DMK or AIADMK respectively. Parties that ran their candidates as independents, (e.g. Indian Uzhavar Uzhaippalar Katchi and Thondar Congress in DMK alliance) are listed as IND for their respective alliance. ‡: Vote % reflects the percentage of votes the party received compared to the entire electorate that voted in this election. Adjusted (Adj.) Vote %, reflects the average % of votes the party received per constituency that they contested. Sources: Election Commission of India[15] and Rediff Newspaper[16]
Constituency wise results
Thanga Tamilselvan, AIADMK legislator from Andipatti, resigned his seat in 2002, to enable Jayalalithaa to contest here. This enabled her to win in a by election in Andipatti, and be Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. She succeeded O. Panneerselvam who took over as chief minister for 6 months, until Jayalalithaa's corruption charges were cleared in court.[17]
Due to the death of V. Perumal, actor turned politician Radha Ravi (son of M.R. Radha) was fielded by AIADMK, and defeated the DMK candidate Subramanian, in a by-election, increasing the majority of the AIADMK.[18]
During 31 May 2002, By-election, A. Boovaraghamoorthy of the AIADMK, defeated D. Parvendhan of PMK, which resulted in AIADMK to pick up Acharapakkam (SC).[19]
^"AIADMK sweeps TN poll". Thehindubusinessline.in. 14 May 2001. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
^"The Hindu". Chennai, India. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012.
^"NDA List of Constituencies". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 2 April 2001. Archived from the original on 3 December 2002.
^"Tamil Nadu". www.indiatoday.com. Archived from the original on 26 January 2013. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
^"Latest News, India News, Breaking News, Live News Online, Today Headline's".
^"The Hindu : List of AIADMK constituencies". Hinduonnet.com. 8 April 2001. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
^"The Hindu : CM has stifled democracy: Jayalalitha". Hinduonnet.com. 1 May 2001. Archived from the original on 28 December 2004. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
^Murthy, P. v v. (6 April 2001). "DMK cadres sore over seat allotment in Vellore district". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 4 December 2002. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
^"The Hindu : Bhuvanagiri: AIADMK-backed Independent on good wicket". Hinduonnet.com. 4 May 2001. Archived from the original on 14 February 2005. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
^"BJP TN website". bjptn.org. Archived from the original on 11 February 2011. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
^ a b"Tamizhar Bhoomi unhappy with DMK offer". Archived from the original on 30 August 2011. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
^"Veeranam, a major poll plank". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 28 April 2006. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012.
^Sundaram, R. (27 April 2001). "AIADMK vs MDMK in Perundurai". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
^"Sweep for UDF, narrow win for AIADMK: exit poll". The Hindu. 11 May 2001. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
^"2001 Tamil Nadu Election Results" (PDF). 12 May 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 October 2010.
^"The Assembly Elections 2001: Tamil Nadu".
^"Jayalalithaa's victory". Frontline. Archived from the original on 20 February 2010. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
^Pro-incumbency pointers, Frontline (Volume 19 – Issue 12, 8–21 June 2002) Retrieved 19 April 2009.
^AIADMK wrests two seats (The Hindu newspaper (3 June 2002)) accessed 19 April 2009
Further reading
Thirunavukkarasu, R. (2001). "Election 2001: Changing Equations". Economic and Political Weekly. 36 (27): 2486–2489. JSTOR 4410818.
