Tamil Nadu marks the southernmost boundary of India and is spread across 511 sq kms. It's India's 11th largest state and seventh largest in terms of population.
Tamil Nadu has already seen 13 assembly elections and the state politics has always revolved around few prominent personalities. Congress was a powerful force in the state till the mid 1960s. But anti-Hindu protests and mass agitations soon made DMK the popular choice and in 1967 DMK's Annadurai became the Chief Minister. After Annadurai's death in 1969, M Karunanidhi became the C M. 1972 saw one of the biggest political forces to emerge from Tamil Nadu, M G Ramachandran. M G broke from DMK and floated his own party ADMK, which was later renamed as AIADMK. MG was the CM of the state from 1977 to 1987, the year he died. J Jayalalithaa was later elected as General Secretary of AIADMK. Since then, it has been a clear war between DMK and AIADMK, or Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, with voters choosing either of the two in subsequent elections.
Over the past decade, some smaller parties have found favour with the voters. Vijayakanth's DMDK, Vaiko's MDMK and Ramdoss's PMK along with Congress, all have the capability to become the king makers, in case a clear majority is not achieved by DMK and AIADMK.
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