Fresh elections for both the Indian parliament and Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly were scheduled for June 1991.

The united AIADMK was able to prove its strength immediately by winning the elections held for two constituencies -Marungapuri and Madurai East on 11 March 1989.

The AIADMK-Congress alliance won 38 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in that election routing the DMK-Janata Dal led National Front.

The emergence of PMK cut into the DMK's political base in the northern districts of Tamil Nadu.

[6][10] In 1991, the Thayaga Marumalarchi Kazhagam (TMK) was formed by the actor-politician Vijaya T. Rajendar after he split from the DMK.

[11][12][13] On 21 May 1991, leader of the Indian National Congress and its prime ministerial candidate for the 1991 general elections was assassinated by a LTTE suicide bomber.

The AIADMK also backed the ICS (SCS) candidate Sanjay Ramasamy in the Virudhunagar constituency.

The victory of AIADMK-Congress has been attributed mainly to the sympathy wave following the Rajiv Gandhi assassination.

Other factors which helped their victory were the consolidation of the AIADMK votes under the unified AIADMK party, successful projection by Jayalalithaa as the true political heir to M. G. Ramachandran (M.G.R), successful portrayal of DMK as anti-woman (by playing up the events in the Assembly on 25 March 1989) and the PMK cutting into the DMK's vote bank in the northern districts.