All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

Infobox_Indian_Political_Party
party_name = All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
party_
leader = Jayalalithaa Jayaram
foundation = MG Ramachandran, October 17, 1972
alliance = None
ideology = Social Democratic/Populist
publication = Dr.Namathu MGR
headquarters = #226, Avvai Shanmugam Salai, Roayapettah, Chennai - 600014

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) ( _ta. அனைத்து இந்திய அண்ணா திராவிட முன்னேற்ற கழகம்) is a regional political party in Tamil Nadu state in India. The party was founded by MG 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 MG Ramachandran.

MGR era

The party was founded in 1972 by Maruthar Gopalamenon Ramachandran (popularly known as MGR), a veteran star of the Tamil film industry, and a popular politician, as a breakaway outfit from the DMK led by M Karunanidhi, the then chief minister, 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 a one-man show, despite the presence of formidable leaders like V.R.Nedunchezhiyan, R.M.Veerappan, and S.Thirunavukkarasu, not to speak of J.Jayalalitha.

The government led by the DMK, was dismissed by a Central promulgation, after MGR filed a petition seeking enquiry into corruption charges.Fact|date=February 2007 The Central Government was held by 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 (1977-79).

Slowly the relations between the Congress party and the AIADMK 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 from the state; the AIADMK had to contend with just two seats.

After returning to power, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's government dismissed a number of state governments belonging to the opposition parties. That also included 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 a "mythical status" of a phoenix.Fact|date=February 2007 The victory of the AIADMK-Congress combine in the assembly elections seemed so certain that the DMK supremo M. Karunanidhi did not contest the assembly elections of 1984. MGR continued to enjoy popular support in his third tenure, which ended with his demise on December 24, 1987.

uccession crisis

Subsequently, MGR's wife Janaki Ramachandran rose to the party's leadership and led the government as the state's first woman chief minister till the state assembly was suspended and President's rule imposed. The party, in the absence of a personality of MGR's caliber, began to crumble with infighting and broke into two factions—one under Janaki Ramachandran, and the other under J. Jayalalithaa, a former cinema star, and associate of MGR. The state elections in 1989 saw DMK rising back to 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 Chandrasekhar, an ally of the AIADMK at that time, on accusations that the constitutional machinery in the state had broken down.

Dr.J.Jayalalitha era

In the elections of 1991, the AIADMK was swept to power. Many political observers, have ascribed the landslide victory to the "anti-incumbent" wave arising out of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv GandhiFact|date=February 2007 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. But, she lost in the next election in 1996. The victorious DMK held power till 2001, which saw Jayalalithaa regaining the mantle once again.

In her second term as chief minister, Ms. Jayalalitha avoided the blunders she committed during the first term. However, she was plagued by the 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 widely popular and wise decisionsFact|date=February 2007 such as banning of lottery tickets, restricting the liquor and sand quarying business to government agencies and banning of tobacco product sales. She also took ruthless action against gangsters, trouble makers, striking government employees and brought discipline and law and order to the stageFact|date=February 2007.

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, the party lost all the seats in the elections in the Parliamentary elections held in 2004 to the opposition coalition comprising of all major opposition parties in the state. The government then embarked on a path to woo the electorate with populist schemes with an eye on the assembly elections scheduled for early 2006Fact|date=February 2007.

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 lead by M Karunanidhi. It managed to hold on to only 61 assembly seats.

Election history

See [http://eci.gov.in/StatisticalReports/SE_2006/StatReport_TN_2006.pdf pdf] for summary.AIADMK's worst poll performance ever in Tamil Nadu was registered in 1989 and its peak in 1991.

Tamil Nadu

Pondicherry

External links

* [http://www.electadmk.com AIADMK website created by Youth's for TN election 2006]
* [http://www.arasiyaltalk.com/CategoryView,category,AIADMK%20-%20ADMK.aspx Latest News & Updates about AIADMK]
* [http://aiadmk.8k.com Unofficial Site of the AIADMK party]
* [http://www.chennaionline.com/cityfeature/political/aiadmk.asp Year of political roller-coaster] - An overview of the party's performance in 2001
* [http://www.indian-elections.com/partymanifestoes/aiadmk.html Information about AIADMK on Indian-Elections.com]
* [http://www.eci.gov.in/StatisticalReports/ EC report on elections]

References