Tamil Nadu Election Date 2026: Voting for all 234 assembly seats of Tamil Nadu will be held in a single phase on 23 April. The votes will be counted on 4 May, the Election Commission of India announced on Sunday, 15 March.
The term of the incumbent Tamil Nadu assembly will end on 10 May. So a new government has to be sworn in before this date.
In the 2021 Tamil Nadu assembly polls held in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), led by MK Stalin, swept to power after a decade in opposition, winning 133 seats on its own. The DMK, along with Congress and other partners in the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA), won 159 out of 234 seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the AIADMK and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), won 75 seats, of which 66 were won by the AIADMK.
This election, actor Vijay's newly- launched Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) is expected to challenge the DMK, the AIADMK, and the BJP as an independent force
Key details about Tamil Nadu Elections 2026
-Date of issue of gazette notification : 30 March
-Last date for making nominations : 6 April
-Date for the scrutiny of nominations : 7 April
-Last date for the withdrawal of candidature : 9 April
-Tamil Nadu has 234 seats. This includes 188 general, 44 SC and two ST seats.
-All assembly seats vote in a single phase on 23 April.
-Results will be announced on 4 May.
-Tamil Nadu has 5.67 crore voters. Of these, 2.7 crore are men and 2.8 Crore are women. There are 7,617 third gender voters in Tamil Nadu.
-Tamil Nadu has 75,032 polling stations. This includes 30,967 urban voters and -44, 065 rural votes.
-Tamil Nadu has 265 model polling stations
-All 75,032 polling stations of Tamil Nadu will have a webcasting facility.
The alliance details in Tamil Nadu
In Tamil Nadu, the fight is usually between the DMK and AIADMK - the two Dravidian parties. The BJP and the Congress - the two national parties - are usually junior alliance partners.
The Congress party will contest 28 assembly seats in the upcoming 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections as part of an alliance with the ruling DMK. The Congress party contested 25 seats in the 2021 polls, winning 18, as part of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance(SPA).
The NDA is close to finalising its seat-sharing arrangement for the forthcoming Assembly election. The AIADMK is keen to contest around 165-170 seats out of Tamil Nadu assembly's 234 seats.
The BJP could be allotted around 29 seats, while TTV Dhinakaran's Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) may get nine seats and the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) about 18 seats. Smaller alliance partners are likely to be given one or two constituencies each.