Opposition to his education policy led to Rajagopalachari's resignation in 1954 and Kamaraj was elected chief minister in his stead.

When Reddiar showed signs of independence, Kamaraj engineered his removal by a vote of no confidence in Congress Legislature Party on 31 March 1949.

P. S. Kumaraswamy Raja, the next Chief Minister who formed the Government on 6 April 1949 was believed to be a stooge of Kamaraj.

In 1951, the Communist Party of India (CPI) which had been waging an armed struggle during 1948–51, gave up the attempt to wrest power through force and joined the political mainstream.

Till then, all the previous elections had been conducted on a limited franchise based on property ownership qualifications.

[4][5][6][7][8] They also had a strong presence in the agrarian district of Tanjore in Tamil Nadu where they were supported by the Dravidar Kazhagam.

[9] The Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), the main opposition party to the Congress in the Tamil speaking areas of the state split in 1949.

[10][11] Some of the old guard of the Justice party, which had been renamed as Dravidar Kazhagam in 1944, refused to accept Periyar's leadership.

Led by P. T. Rajan, they insisted they were still the real Justice party and contested the 1952 elections under the "Scales" symbol.

However, it supported the Communists in an effort to defeat the Indian National Congress which it claimed was a Brahmin dominated party.

[12] The composite Madras State then included parts of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka with a total of 375 assembly members.

Kumaraswami Raja, the incumbent Chief Minister lost the election along with five members of his cabinet (Bezawada Gopala Reddy, Kala Venkata Rao, K. Chandramouli, K. Madhava Menon and M.

In February 1952, the non-congress members convened under T. Prakasam, leader of the KMPP, at Madras to form the United Democratic Front (UDF) and issued a "Common Minimum Program".

Prakasam wrote to the Governor Sri Prakasa staking his claim to form the Government as the leader of the single largest formation.

[20][22][23][24] Kamaraj, President of the Madras Provincial Congress Committee was of the opinion that the UDF should be allowed to form the Government as he had predicted the weak coalition might eventually fall apart.

He refused to run for a by-election and the Governor nominated him for the assembly's upper house (Legislative Council).

The Madras assembly was reduced from 375 to 230, 140 members going to Andhra and 5 to Mysore with the Congress Party controlling 118 seats; an outright majority.

[39] Kamaraj resigned his presidency of the Provincial Congress Committee owning responsibility for the election loss and was soon replaced by P.

[25] Rajaji's nomination to the Legislative Council was challenged in the Madras High Court by P. Ramamurthi, the CPI MLA from Madurai North Constituency.

The southern part (Tamil-speaking area) of Travancore-Cochin (present day Kanyakumari district) and Shenkottah taluk were merged into the State.