All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Encyclopedia
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is a state political party in the states of Tamil Nadu
(Ruling party) and Pondicherry, India
. The party was founded by M. G. Ramachandran
and is now headed by J. Jayalalithaa
. The party headquarters is in Royapettah, Chennai
, and was gifted to the party in 1986 by its former leader Janaki Ramachandran
, wife of M. G. Ramachandran.
(DMK) led by M. Karunanidhi
, the then chief minister of Tamil Nadu, owing to differences between the two. Relations between the two parties have been marked by mutual contempt.
Till the time MGR, also known as Puratchi Thalaivar (Revolutionary Leader), was alive, the AIADMK continued to be dominated by one man, despite the presence of formidable leaders like V. R. Nedunchezhiyan
, R. M. Veerappan, K. V. Kandaswamy
, S. Thirunavukkarasu, and J.Jayalalithaa.
The government led by the DMK, was dismissed by a Central promulgation after MGR filed a petition seeking enquiry into corruption
charges. The Central Government was held by the Congress Party, an ally of the AIADMK. The party came to power in 1977 after trouncing DMK in the next elections to the legislative assembly in the state and MGR was named the Chief Minister. He was sworn in as chief minister of the state on June 30, 1977. In 1979, AIADMK became the first Dravidian
and non-congress party to be part of the Union Cabinet, when two AIADMK Members of Parliament, Satyavani Muthu and Aravinda Bala Pajanor
, joined the short-lived Charan Singh Ministry which followed the Morarji Desai-led Janata Party
government of 1977-79.
Relations between the Congress party and the AIADMK slowly became strained and the DMK got closer to the Congress Party. In the mid-term parliamentary elections of January 1980, the Congress Party aligned with the DMK and the alliance won 37 out of 39 parliamentary seats in the state; the AIADMK had just two seats.
After returning to power, the Prime Minister of India
, Indira Gandhi
's government dismissed a number of state governments belonging to the opposition parties, including Dr. M. G. Ramachandran's government. Elections to the state legislature were held in late May 1980. Reversing the trend of Lok Sabha elections, the AIADMK won a comfortable majority in the state assembly by winning 129 seats out of 234. MGR was sworn in as chief minister for the second time on June 9, 1980.
In 1984, even with MGR's failing health and subsequent hospitalization abroad, the party managed to win the state elections in alliance with the Congress party that had improved relations with the AIADMK. Many political historians consider MGR's persona and charisma at this point of time as "infallible", and a logical continuation of his on-screen "good lad" image, strengthened by his mythical status in the minds of the masses. The victory of the AIADMK-Congress combine in the assembly elections seemed so certain that the DMK supremo M. Karunanidhi refrained from contesting the assembly elections of 1984. MGR continued to enjoy popular support in his third tenure, which ended with his demise on December 24, 1987.
MGR's wife Janaki Ramachandran
subsequently rose to the party's leadership and led the government as the state's first woman chief minister until the state assembly was suspended and President's rule imposed. The party, in the absence of a personality of MGR's calibre, began to crumble, with infighting, and broke into two factions, one under Janaki Ramachandran and the other under J. Jayalalithaa
, a former film star and associate of MGR. The state elections in 1989 saw DMK regaining power with Karunanidhi at the helm. The factions led by Jayalalitha and Janaki merged in 1988 under the former's leadership. The DMK government was dismissed in 1990 by the central government led by prime minister Chandra Shekhar Singh, an ally of the AIADMK at that time, with accusations that the constitutional machinery in the state had broken down.
by suspected Tamil separatists fighting for a homeland in neighbouring Sri Lanka
. The ensuing government was accused of large-scale corruption, but Jayalalithaa managed to hold on to power for a full term of five years, after which she lost the next election to the DMK, in 1996. The DMK held power till 2001, when Jayalalithaa won the next election to become chief minister once again. She has been very vocal in opposing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE, or Tamil Tigers) since then and has had a wishy-washy political association with Subramaniam Swamy. Some AIADMK cadres were accused of being behind the acid-attack on Subramaniam Swamy's acquaintance, Chandralekha, an IAS officer.
In her second term as chief minister, Ms. Jayalalitha avoided the blunders she committed during the first term. However, she was plagued by corruption cases related to her earlier rule and had to sit out of the government for some time. After having been cleared by the courts she became chief minister again. She undertook economic reforms and took many popular decisions such as banning of lottery tickets, restricting the liquor and sand quarrying business to government agencies and banning tobacco
product sales near schools and colleges. She also took action against gangsters, trouble makers, and striking government employees, and improved law and order in the state.
She sent a special task force to the Satyamangalam forests in October 2004 to hunt down notorious sandalwood smuggler Veerappan
. The operation was successful as Veerappan was finally killed by the task force on 18 October 2004.
However, in the Parliamentary elections of 2004, the party lost all their seats to the opposition coalition comprising all major opposition parties in the state.
In the assembly elections of 2006, in spite of media speculations of a hung assembly, the AIADMK was pushed out of power owing to big sweep by the DMK led by M Karunanidhi. It managed to hold on to only 61 assembly seats.
In the recently concluded 2011 elections, the party won by massive 146 seats making it a single largest party in the state.Only because of Jayalalitha, her ally DMDK became the second largest party leaving DMK to third.
Miss. Jayalalithaa won from her home constituency Srirangam.
AIADMK has spread out and has following in the states of Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh with official units. The party under the leadership of Dr. Jayalalitha had floated 54 candidates across the state of Kerala in the Assembly elections of 2006 and had contested on its own. Initially AIADMK had made an alliance with Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) led by the former Kerala Chief Minister K. Karunakaran, but decided to go on its own when the latter went with the Congress led United Democratic Front at the last moment, as a result of the mediation talks from the constituents of the UDF. In Karnataka the party had members in the state Assembly. AIADMK has its following in various other places like Mumbai and Delhi. There are also units in various countries where the Tamil population is spread out.
Jayalalitha is intelligent and efficient, but her authoritarian style left with no visible second level leadership or youth faces in her party. In this era of development oriented politics, her party lacks well-known figures.
Recently she made an effort to attract youths, by forming "Ilaignar Pasarai", which gained momentum, but her effort was demolished in one stroke, when she asked youths to be patient in a marriage function. Various press articles reported that youth in her party was disappointed by her remarks. She has attacked the DMK over its role in the government's neglect of the economy, ignoring the rising cost of living and further ignoring the increase in political extremism.
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
(Ruling party) and Pondicherry, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The party was founded by M. G. Ramachandran
M. G. Ramachandran
Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran , popularly known by his initials , was an Indian film actor, director, producer and politician....
and is now headed by J. Jayalalithaa
J. Jayalalithaa
Jayalalithaa Jayaram ; born 24 February 1948) commonly referred to as J. Jayalalitha, is the Chief Minister of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. She is the incumbent general secretary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam , a Dravidian party. She is called Amma and Puratchi Thalaivi by her...
. The party headquarters is in Royapettah, Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
, and was gifted to the party in 1986 by its former leader Janaki Ramachandran
Janaki Ramachandran
Janaki Ramachandran , popularly known as V.N. Janaki , was an Indian Tamil actress and politician. She was born to Rajagopal Iyer and Narayani Amma in the town of Vaikom in Kerala State. She had a brother P. Narayanan who was an educationalist...
, wife of M. G. Ramachandran.
MGR era
The party was founded in 1972 by M. G. Ramachandran (popularly known as MGR), a veteran star of the Tamil film industry and a popular politician, as a breakaway from the Dravida Munnetra KazhagamDravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is a state political party in the states of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, India. It is a Dravidian party founded by C. N. Annadurai as a breakaway faction from the Dravidar Kazhagam headed by Periyar...
(DMK) led by M. Karunanidhi
M. Karunanidhi
Muthuvel Karunanidhi is an Indian politician and a former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He is the head of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam , a Dravidian political party in the state of Tamil Nadu. He has been the leader of the DMK since the death of its founder, C. N...
, the then chief minister of Tamil Nadu, owing to differences between the two. Relations between the two parties have been marked by mutual contempt.
Till the time MGR, also known as Puratchi Thalaivar (Revolutionary Leader), was alive, the AIADMK continued to be dominated by one man, despite the presence of formidable leaders like V. R. Nedunchezhiyan
V. R. Nedunchezhiyan
V.R. Nedunchezhiyan was a former finance minister of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. He was also the acting chief minister of Tamil Nadu in two tenures .He was born at Thirukkannapuram in a Hindu Mudaliar family...
, R. M. Veerappan, K. V. Kandaswamy
K. V. Kandaswamy
K. V. Kandaswamy or K.V.K is an Indian Prostatuite Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu. He was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly as an Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate from Kinathukadavu constituency in 1977, 1980 and 1984 elections.He was widely considered to be...
, S. Thirunavukkarasu, and J.Jayalalithaa.
The government led by the DMK, was dismissed by a Central promulgation after MGR filed a petition seeking enquiry into corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
charges. The Central Government was held by the Congress Party, an ally of the AIADMK. The party came to power in 1977 after trouncing DMK in the next elections to the legislative assembly in the state and MGR was named the Chief Minister. He was sworn in as chief minister of the state on June 30, 1977. In 1979, AIADMK became the first Dravidian
Dravidian parties
Dravidian parties include an array of regional political parties in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, which trace their origins and ideologies either directly or indirectly to the Dravidian movement of Periyar E. V...
and non-congress party to be part of the Union Cabinet, when two AIADMK Members of Parliament, Satyavani Muthu and Aravinda Bala Pajanor
Aravinda Bala Pajanor
Aravinda Bala Pajanor, last name also written as Pazhanoor, was a member of the 5th and 6th Lok Sabha of India, and Union Cabinet Minister in the Government of India. He, along with Satyavani Muthu became the first union cabinet minister from a Dravidian party in the first ever coalition ministry...
, joined the short-lived Charan Singh Ministry which followed the Morarji Desai-led Janata Party
Janata Party
The Janata Party was an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the state of emergency imposed by the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Indian National Congress...
government of 1977-79.
Relations between the Congress party and the AIADMK slowly became strained and the DMK got closer to the Congress Party. In the mid-term parliamentary elections of January 1980, the Congress Party aligned with the DMK and the alliance won 37 out of 39 parliamentary seats in the state; the AIADMK had just two seats.
After returning to power, the Prime Minister of India
Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...
, Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...
's government dismissed a number of state governments belonging to the opposition parties, including Dr. M. G. Ramachandran's government. Elections to the state legislature were held in late May 1980. Reversing the trend of Lok Sabha elections, the AIADMK won a comfortable majority in the state assembly by winning 129 seats out of 234. MGR was sworn in as chief minister for the second time on June 9, 1980.
In 1984, even with MGR's failing health and subsequent hospitalization abroad, the party managed to win the state elections in alliance with the Congress party that had improved relations with the AIADMK. Many political historians consider MGR's persona and charisma at this point of time as "infallible", and a logical continuation of his on-screen "good lad" image, strengthened by his mythical status in the minds of the masses. The victory of the AIADMK-Congress combine in the assembly elections seemed so certain that the DMK supremo M. Karunanidhi refrained from contesting the assembly elections of 1984. MGR continued to enjoy popular support in his third tenure, which ended with his demise on December 24, 1987.
Succession crisis
Janaki Ramachandran
Janaki Ramachandran , popularly known as V.N. Janaki , was an Indian Tamil actress and politician. She was born to Rajagopal Iyer and Narayani Amma in the town of Vaikom in Kerala State. She had a brother P. Narayanan who was an educationalist...
subsequently rose to the party's leadership and led the government as the state's first woman chief minister until the state assembly was suspended and President's rule imposed. The party, in the absence of a personality of MGR's calibre, began to crumble, with infighting, and broke into two factions, one under Janaki Ramachandran and the other under J. Jayalalithaa
J. Jayalalithaa
Jayalalithaa Jayaram ; born 24 February 1948) commonly referred to as J. Jayalalitha, is the Chief Minister of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. She is the incumbent general secretary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam , a Dravidian party. She is called Amma and Puratchi Thalaivi by her...
, a former film star and associate of MGR. The state elections in 1989 saw DMK regaining power with Karunanidhi at the helm. The factions led by Jayalalitha and Janaki merged in 1988 under the former's leadership. The DMK government was dismissed in 1990 by the central government led by prime minister Chandra Shekhar Singh, an ally of the AIADMK at that time, with accusations that the constitutional machinery in the state had broken down.
J. Jayalalitha era
The AIADMK swept to power in the elections of 1991. Many political observers have ascribed the landslide victory to the anti-incumbent wave arising out of the assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv GandhiRajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was the sixth Prime Minister of India . He took office after his mother's assassination on 31 October 1984; he himself was assassinated on 21 May 1991. He became the youngest Prime Minister of India when he took office at the age of 40.Rajiv Gandhi was the elder son of Indira...
by suspected Tamil separatists fighting for a homeland in neighbouring Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
. The ensuing government was accused of large-scale corruption, but Jayalalithaa managed to hold on to power for a full term of five years, after which she lost the next election to the DMK, in 1996. The DMK held power till 2001, when Jayalalithaa won the next election to become chief minister once again. She has been very vocal in opposing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a separatist militant organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976 by Vellupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a violent secessionist and nationalist campaign to create an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for Tamil...
(LTTE, or Tamil Tigers) since then and has had a wishy-washy political association with Subramaniam Swamy. Some AIADMK cadres were accused of being behind the acid-attack on Subramaniam Swamy's acquaintance, Chandralekha, an IAS officer.
In her second term as chief minister, Ms. Jayalalitha avoided the blunders she committed during the first term. However, she was plagued by corruption cases related to her earlier rule and had to sit out of the government for some time. After having been cleared by the courts she became chief minister again. She undertook economic reforms and took many popular decisions such as banning of lottery tickets, restricting the liquor and sand quarrying business to government agencies and banning tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
product sales near schools and colleges. She also took action against gangsters, trouble makers, and striking government employees, and improved law and order in the state.
She sent a special task force to the Satyamangalam forests in October 2004 to hunt down notorious sandalwood smuggler Veerappan
Veerappan
Koose Muniswamy Veerappan commonly known as Veerappan, was a notorious dacoit, or robber bandit, of India. He was active for a period of years in a broad swath of land covering 6,000 km² in the states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu...
. The operation was successful as Veerappan was finally killed by the task force on 18 October 2004.
However, in the Parliamentary elections of 2004, the party lost all their seats to the opposition coalition comprising all major opposition parties in the state.
In the assembly elections of 2006, in spite of media speculations of a hung assembly, the AIADMK was pushed out of power owing to big sweep by the DMK led by M Karunanidhi. It managed to hold on to only 61 assembly seats.
In the recently concluded 2011 elections, the party won by massive 146 seats making it a single largest party in the state.Only because of Jayalalitha, her ally DMDK became the second largest party leaving DMK to third.
Miss. Jayalalithaa won from her home constituency Srirangam.
AIADMK has spread out and has following in the states of Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh with official units. The party under the leadership of Dr. Jayalalitha had floated 54 candidates across the state of Kerala in the Assembly elections of 2006 and had contested on its own. Initially AIADMK had made an alliance with Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) led by the former Kerala Chief Minister K. Karunakaran, but decided to go on its own when the latter went with the Congress led United Democratic Front at the last moment, as a result of the mediation talks from the constituents of the UDF. In Karnataka the party had members in the state Assembly. AIADMK has its following in various other places like Mumbai and Delhi. There are also units in various countries where the Tamil population is spread out.
Jayalalitha is intelligent and efficient, but her authoritarian style left with no visible second level leadership or youth faces in her party. In this era of development oriented politics, her party lacks well-known figures.
Recently she made an effort to attract youths, by forming "Ilaignar Pasarai", which gained momentum, but her effort was demolished in one stroke, when she asked youths to be patient in a marriage function. Various press articles reported that youth in her party was disappointed by her remarks. She has attacked the DMK over its role in the government's neglect of the economy, ignoring the rising cost of living and further ignoring the increase in political extremism.
Tamil Nadu
| Year | General Election | Votes Polled | Seats Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | 6th Assembly | 5,194,876 | 131 |
| 1977 | 6th Lok Sabha | 5,365,076 | 17 |
| 1980 | 7th Assembly | 7,303,010 | 129 |
| 1980 | 7th Lok Sabha | 4,674,064 | 2 |
| 1984 | 8th Assembly | 8,030,809 | 134 |
| 1984 | 8th Lok Sabha | 3,968,967 | 12 |
| 1989 | 9th Assembly | 148,630 | 2 |
| 1989 | 9th Lok Sabha | 4,518,649 | 11 |
| 1991 | 10th Assembly | 10,940,966 | 164 |
| 1991 | 10th Lok Sabha | 4,470,542 | 11 |
| 1996 | 11th Assembly | 5,831,383 | 4 |
| 1996 | 11th Lok Sabha | 2,130,286 | 0 |
| 1998 | 12th Lok Sabha | 6,628,928 | 18 |
| 1999 | 13th Lok Sabha | 6,992,003 | 10 |
| 2001 | 12th Assembly | 8,815,387 | 132 |
| 2004 | 14th Lok Sabha | 8,547,014 | 0 |
| 2006 | 13th Assembly | 10,768,559 | 61 |
| 2009 | 15th Lok Sabha | 6,953,591 | 9 |
| 2011 | 14th Assembly | 14,738,042 | 150 |
Pondicherry
| Year | General Election | Votes Polled | Seats Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | 3rd Assembly | 60,812 | 1 |
| 1977 | 4th Assembly | 69,873 | 14 |
| 1977 | 6th Lok Sabha | 115,302 | 1 |
| 1980 | 5th Assembly | 45,623 | 20 |
| 1985 | 6th Assembly | 47,521 | 6 |
| 1990 | 7th Assembly | 76,337 | 30 |
| 1991 | 8th Assembly | 67,792 | 6 |
| 1996 | 9th Assembly | 57,678 | 3 |
| 1998 | 12th Lok Sabha | 102,622 | 1 |
| 2001 | 10th Assembly | 59,926 | 3 |
| 2006 | 11th Assembly |
Chief ministers
Chief ministers and deputy chief ministers from ADMK are:- M. G. RamachandranM. G. RamachandranMaruthur Gopalan Ramachandran , popularly known by his initials , was an Indian film actor, director, producer and politician....
- Janaki RamachandranJanaki RamachandranJanaki Ramachandran , popularly known as V.N. Janaki , was an Indian Tamil actress and politician. She was born to Rajagopal Iyer and Narayani Amma in the town of Vaikom in Kerala State. She had a brother P. Narayanan who was an educationalist...
- J. JayalalithaaJ. JayalalithaaJayalalithaa Jayaram ; born 24 February 1948) commonly referred to as J. Jayalalitha, is the Chief Minister of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. She is the incumbent general secretary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam , a Dravidian party. She is called Amma and Puratchi Thalaivi by her...
- O. PanneerselvamO. PanneerselvamO. Paneerselvam is the current Finance Minister and a former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Prior to his entry into politics, he owned agricultural lands and a tea shop which he still owns. He was the chairman of Periakulam municipality in 1996. Then he contested the 2001 MLA election from...