2026_Tamil_Nadu_Legislative_Assembly_election

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Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly elections were held on 23 April 2026 to elect all 234 members of the 17th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. The votes were counted and the results were declared on 4 May 2026 by the Election Commission of India. This election recorded a voter turnout of 85.1 percent—the highest ever in the history of the state's assembly elections. The election resulted in a hung assembly, with the newcomer Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) emerging as the single largest party. It won 108 seats, defeating both the incumbent Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the opposition All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). The DMK's Secular Progressive Alliance was reduced to 73 seats, 59 of which were of the DMK, becoming the new opposition of the house. Its ally, the Lok Sabha opposition Indian National Congress, won 5 seats. The AIADMK-led National Democratic Alliance with the ruling party of the union government, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), won 53 seats. The AIADMK secured 45 seats, while the BJP was reduced to a single seat. Outgoing chief minister, M. K. Stalin of the DMK, lost the election from the Kolathur constituency, becoming the first incumbent CM since the AIADMK's J. Jayalalithaa in 1996 to lose an election. This election also marked the first time a non-Dravidian party emerged as the single largest party in the state since 1967, when self-described Dravidian parties began dominating the state's politics.