Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, 1980

Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, 1980
India
May 28, 1980
All 234 seats in the Legislature of Tamil Nadu
  First party Second party
 
Leader M. G. Ramachandran M. Karunanidhi
Party AIADMK DMK
Alliance ADMK+ INC+
Leader's seat Madurai West Anna Nagar
Seats won 162 69
Seat change Increase14 Decrease6
Popular vote 9,328,839 8,371,718
Percentage 48.92% 44.43%
Swing Increase18.56% Increase19.54%

1980 election map (by constituencies)
Chief Minister before election

M. G. Ramachandran
AIADMK

 Chief Minister

M. G. Ramachandran
AIADMK

The seventh legislative assembly election to Tamil Nadu was held on May 28, 1980. Election was held two years before the end of the term of M. G. Ramachandran administration as it was dissolved by the then President of India Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam allied with the Indian National Congress (Indira) and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam with Janata Party. Despite their victory at the 1980 Lok Sabha polls, DMK and Indira Congress failed to win the legislative assembly election. ADMK won the election and its leader and incumbent Chief Minister, M. G. Ramachandran was sworn in as Chief Minister for the second time. He became the first leader since K. Kamaraj to win a re-election as a Chief Minister.

Background

Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam allied with Indian National Congress (Indira) in 1977 parliamentary election. However, when Janata Party won the election and Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister, M. G. Ramachandran extended unconditional support to the Janata party Government. He continued his support to the Charan Singh Government in 1979. After the fall of the Charan Singh government, fresh parliamentary elections were conducted in 1980. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam struck alliance with INC(I). ADMK and Janata Party alliance won only 2 seats in Tamil Nadu in that parliamentary election. INC(I) won the election and Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister.[1]

Dismissal of ADMK government

Congress-DMK victory in the 1980 parliamentary election emboldened their alliance and made them think that people lost their faith in M. G. Ramachandran government. DMK pressed the central government to dismiss the Tamil Nadu government using similar allegations used by MGR to dismiss DMK government in 1976. The ADMK ministry and the assembly were dismissed by the central government and fresh elections conducted in 1980.[2]

Seat allotments

After the Lok Sabha election, negotiations in seat allotments between DMK and INC(I) were heated. They finally agreed on contesting in equal number of seats. This led to the debate on who the will be the Chief Minister if the alliance wins, which led to TNCC general secretary G.K. Moopanar and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announcing that DMK president M. Karunanidhi will be the CM candidate for the alliance.[3] Even after the announcement, party leaders were under the impression that DMK must outperform INC(I), in order for Karunanidhi to get the chief ministership.[4]

AIADMK Front

No.
 Party Election Symbol Leader Seats
1. All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam M.G. Ramachandran 177
3. Communist Party of India (Marxist) G. Ramakrishnan 16
2. Communist Party of India D. Pandian 15
4. Gandhi Kamaraj Congress Party 10
5. Indian National Congress (Urs) D. Devaraj Urs 3
6. All India Forward Bloc 2
7. ADMK backed independents 11

DMK Front

No.
 Party Election Symbol Leader Seats
1. Indian National Congress (Indira) G.K. Moopanar 114
2. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam M. Karunanidhi 112
Unregistered parties, whose candidates ran as an independent
3. Indian Union Muslim League Khader Mohideen6
4. DMK backed independents 2

Voting and Results

Results by Pre-Poll Alliance

Election map of results based on parties. Colours are based on the results table on the left
 Summary of the 1980 May Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election results
Sources: Election Commission of India and Keesing's Report [5][6]
Alliance/Party Seats won Change Popular Vote Vote % Adj. %‡
AIADMK+ alliance 162 +14 9,328,839 48.9%
ADMK 129 -1 7,303,010 38.8% 50.4%
CPI(M) 11 -1 596,406 3.2% 47.6%
CPI 9 +4 501,032 2.7% 43.9%
GKC 6 +6 322,440 1.7% 44.1%
IND 6 +6 488,296 2.6%
FBL 1 – 65,536 0.4% 44.6%
INC(U) 0 – 52,119 0.3% 29.3%
DMK+ alliance 69 -6 8,371,718 44.4%
DMK 37 -11 4,164,389 22.1% 45.7%
INC(I) 31 +4 3,941,900 20.9% 43.4%
IND 1 +1 265,429 1.4%
Others 3 -8 1,144,449 6.1%
JNP(JP) 2 -8 522,641 2.8% 6.9%
IND 1 – 598,897 3.2% –
Total 234 – 18,845,006 100% –

‡: Vote % reflects the percentage of votes the party received compared to the entire electorate that voted in this election. Adjusted (Adj.) Vote %, reflects the % of votes the party received per constituency that they contested.

Constituency wise results

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Attar Chand (1988). M G Ramachandran: My Blood Brother. Gian Publishing House. p. 7.
  2. ↑ G. Palanithurai (June 1991). Role Perception of the Legislators: A Case Study of Tamil Nadu. Stosius Inc/Advent Books Division. pp. 26–27. ISBN 81-220-0227-7.
  3. ↑ A long and troubled affair
  4. ↑ THE ART OF SURVIVAL
  5. ↑ ECI: 1980 Election Statistical Report
  6. ↑ Keesing's Statistical Report
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