A quarter of the seats in Tamil Nadu were won with a margin of less than 3%

Tamil Nadu witnessed a very closely fought election this time around. Out of the 232 constituencies that went to polls, 15 were won with a margin of less than 1000 votes. The victory margin in two constituencies was less than 100. The average victory margin has come down by 35% compared to 2011.

Tamil Nadu witnessed a very closely fought election this time around. Unlike the landslide victory to either the AIADMK or the DMK alliance, the AIADMK won a simple majority by winning 134 out of the 232 constituencies that went to polls. The DMK alliance on the other hand won 98 seats. The AIADMK won 40.8% of the popular vote while the DMK alliance won close to 39.8%.

Victory margin was less than 1000 votes in 15 constituencies

Out of the 232 constituencies that went to polls, the victory margin was less than 100 votes in 2 constituencies and less than 1000 in 15 constituencies. The victory margin in Radhapuram constituency was just 49 votes while in Kattumannarkoil constituency, the victory margin was just 87 votes. Both these constituencies were won by the AIADMK. In 2011, the victory margin was less than 1000 in only 8 constituencies.25% of the constituencies were won with a margin of less than 3%

57 of the constituencies were won with a victory margin of less than 3%. In other words, one out of every four constituencies was won with a victory margin of less than 3%. Close to 39% (89) constituencies were won with a margin of less than 5%. Less than 1/3^rd (73) of the constituencies  were won with a victory margin of more than 10%.  The highest victory margin both in terms of number of votes and percentage of votes was in Thiruvarur constituency. DMK chief M Karunanidhi won with a margin of 34.7% votes (68366 votes) from here. Jayalalitha’s victory margin on the other hand was 39545 or 22.7%.AIADMK won 50 seats with less than 5% margin

Out of the 134 seats won by the AIADMK, 32 of them were won with a margin of less than 3% while 50 of them were won with a margin of less than 5% votes. On the other hand, the DMK alliance won 25 seats with a margin of less than 3% votes and 39 seats with a margin of less than 5% votes. AIADMK won 42 seats with a margin of more than 10% votes compared to DMK alliance’s 31 seats with a similar margin.Number of seats won with more than 10% margin reduced to half

The fact that 2016 was a closely fought election unlike 2011 was evident in the number of seats won with greater margins. While only 28 seats were won less than 5% margin in 2011, this number went up three times, to 89 in 2016. In 2011, 143 seats were won with a margin of more than 10%, while in 2016, this number is reduced by half to 73. In 2011, 183 seats were won with a margin of more than 10000 votes. In 2016, this is down to 134 seats. The average victory margin in 2016 has also come down substantially by 35% compared to 2011. In 2011, the average victory margin was 22798 votes while in 2016, it is down to 14835 votes.