All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Abbreviation	AIADMK
Leader	Edappadi K. Palaniswami
President	E. Madhusudhanan
Chairman	O. Panneerselvam
Lok Sabha Leader	M. Thambidurai
Rajya Sabha Leader	A. Navaneethakrishnan
Founder	M. G. Ramachandran
Founded	17 October 1972 (1972-10-17)
Split from	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Headquarters	226, Avvai Shanmugam Salai, Royapettah, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India–600014.
Newspaper	Namadhu MGR
Ideology	Social democracy Populism
Political position	Center-left
ECI Status	State Party
Alliance	United Progressive Alliance (1977-1980, 1991-1996, 1999) National Democratic Alliance (1998-1999 & 2004-2006) Third Front (2008–present)
Seats in Lok Sabha	37 / 545
Seats in Rajya Sabha	13 / 245
Election symbol
Website
aiadmk.com
Politics of India Political parties Elections

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) (lit. All India Anna Dravidian Progress Federation) is an Indian political party in the states of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. It is currently in power in Tamil Nadu and is the third largest party in the Lok Sabha. It is a Dravidian party and was founded by M. G. Ramachandran (popularly known as MGR) on 17 October 1972 as a breakaway faction of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). From 1989 to 2016, AIADMK was led by Jayalalithaa, who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on several occasions. The party has won majorities in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly seven times, making it the most successful political outfit in the state's history. The party headquarters is located in Royapettah, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, which was donated to the party in 1986 by Mrs. Janaki Ramachandran, MGR's wife.

History

M. G. Ramachandran era (1972–1987)

The party was founded in 1972 as Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) by M. G. Ramachandran, a veteran Tamil film star and a popular politician, as a breakaway faction of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led by M. Karunanidhi, the then chief minister of Tamil Nadu, owing to serious differences between the two. Later, MGR prefixed the All India (AI) tag to the party's name. Since its inception, the relationship between the AIADMK and DMK has been marked by mutual contempt. MGR used his fan network for building the party cadre, and estimates claim his party recruited more than a million members from the first two months of creation. The party tasted victory for the first time by winning the Dindigul parliamentary by-election in 1973 and also won the Coimbatore assembly by-election a year later. As of 2 April 1973, AIADMK emerged as the third largest political party represented by 11 MLAs in the Assembly. By 31 January 1976, AIADMK emerged as the second largest political party represented by 16 MLAs in the Assembly. AIADMK grew close to the Congress by supporting the Emergency which occurred between 1975 and 1977.

The DMK-led government was dismissed by a Central promulgation of corruption charges in 1976. The AIADMK swept to power in 1977, trouncing DMK in the assembly elections. MGR was sworn in as the 7th Chief Minister of the state on 30 June 1977. MGR remained in power until his death in December 1987, winning three consecutive assembly elections held in 1977, 1980 and 1984.

In 1979, AIADMK became the first Dravidian and regional party to be part of the Union Cabinet, when two AIADMK MP's, 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 and the AIADMK slowly became strained. In the mid-term parliamentary elections of January 1980, the Congress aligned with the DMK and the alliance won 37 out of the 39 parliamentary seats in the state; the AIADMK won just two seats. After returning to power, the new prime minister, Indira Gandhi, dismissed a number of state governments belonging to the opposition parties, including the AIADMK government.

Elections to the state assembly were held in late May 1980 with the opposition DMK continuing the electoral alliance with the Congress. In a massive reversal of fortunes following its humbling in the Lok Sabha elections, the AIADMK won a comfortable majority in the state assembly by winning 129 seats out of 234 and MGR was sworn in as chief minister for the second time on 9 June 1980.

In 1984, even with MGR's failing health and subsequent hospitalization abroad, the party managed to win the assembly elections in alliance with the Congress. 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. MGR continued to enjoy popular support in his third tenure, which ended with his demise on 24 December 1987.

Succession crisis (1987–1989)

M. G. Ramachandran on left and Janaki on right

Following MGR's death, his wife, actress-turned-politician Janaki Ramachandran, rose to the party's leadership and led the government for 24 days as the state's 1st woman chief minister until the state assembly was suspended in January 1988 and President's rule imposed. The party began to crumble due to infighting and broke into two factions, one under Janaki Ramachandran and the other under J. Jayalalithaa, an associate of MGR and another film actress-turned-politician who had starred with MGR in many movies. The assembly elections in 1989 saw the DMK regaining power after 12 years in the opposition with Karunanidhi returning as the Chief Minister for the third time. AIADMK, due to its split, suffered heavily in the elections, with the Janaki and Jayalalithaa factions winning only 2 and 27 seats, respectively. Following AIADMK's rout in the elections, the factions led by Jayalalithaa and Janaki merged under the former's leadership. The DMK government was dismissed in 1990 by the Central Government led by Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, an ally of the AIADMK at that time, on charges that the constitutional machinery in the state had broken down.

Jayalalithaa era (1989–2016)

Former CM of Tamil Nadu, Late.Jayalalithaa

The AIADMK allied with the Congress and swept to power in the 1991 assembly election under the leadership of Jayalalitha who became the second female chief minister and the 10th chief minister of the state. Many political observers have ascribed the landslide victory to the anti-incumbent wave arising out of the assassination of the former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi by suspected Tamil separatists fighting for a homeland in neighbouring Sri Lanka. The ensuing government, including Jayalalithaa, was accused of large-scale corruption, but Jayalalithaa managed to hold on to power for a full term of five years. In the 1996 assembly election, AIADMK continued its alliance with the Congress but suffered a massive rout, winning only four out of the 234 assembly seats, with even Jayalalithaa losing from Bargur.

The AIADMK formed an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Vaiko's Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), another breakaway faction of the DMK, during the parliamentary elections in 1998. AIADMK shared power with the BJP in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee headed government between 1998 and 1999, but withdrew support a year later, leading to the fall of the BJP government at the center. Following this, the AIADMK once again allied with the Congress.

In the 2001 assembly election, the AIADMK-led alliance, consisting of the Congress, the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), the Left Front and the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), regained power, winning 197 seats, with AIADMK winning 132 of them. Due to the proceedings in a disproportionate assets case which occurred in her previous tenure, she was prevented from holding office. O. Panneerselvam, a close confidant of Jayalalithaa was appointed as the Chief Minister on 21 September 2001. Once the Supreme Court overturned Jayalalithaa's conviction and sentence in the case, O Panneerselvam resigned on 2 March 2002, and Jayalalithaa was sworn in again as Chief Minister.

Unlike her first term, her second term was not marred by corruption scandals. She 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 encouraged women to join the state police force by setting up all women-police stations and commissioning 150 women into the elite level police commandos in 2003, a first in India. They underwent the same training as their male counterparts, covering the handling of weapons, detection and disposal of bombs, driving, horseriding, and adventure sports. 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, despite the popular measures taken by the government, in the 2004 Lok Sabha election, the party, in alliance with the BJP again, was humiliated, not even winning any of the 39 Lok Sabha seats from the state. The Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA), a DMK-led alliance consisting of all the major opposition parties in the state, swept the election.

Later, in the 2006 assembly election, in spite of media speculations of a hung assembly, the AIADMK, contesting with only the support of MDMK and a few other smaller parties, won 61 seats compared to the DMK's 96 and was pushed out of power by the DMK-led alliance comprising the Congress, the PMK and the Left Front. The AIADMK's electoral reversals continued in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, which is contested as a member of the Left Front-led United National Progressive Alliance. However, the party's performance was better than its debacle in 2004, and it managed to win nine seats.

Following widespread corruption and allegations of nepotism against the DMK government, in the 2011 assembly election, the party, in alliance with parties like the left and actor-turned-politician Vijayakanth's Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), swept the polls, winning 202 seats, with the AIADMK alone winning 150. Jayalalithaa was sworn in as Chief Minister for the third time.

In the Union territory of Puducherry, the party allied with N. Rangaswamy's All India N.R. Congress (AINRC) and won the 2011 assembly election, which was held in parallel with the Tamil Nadu assembly election. However, it did not join the newly elected AINRC-led government. The AIADMK's good electoral performance continued in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. Contesting without allies, the AIADMK won an unprecedented 37 out of 39 seats in the state of Tamil Nadu, emerging as the third-largest party in parliament.

On 27 September 2014, Jayalalithaa was convicted in the Disproportionate assets case against Jayalalithaa by a Special Court which convicted all four accused, namely Jayalalithaa and her associates Sasikala Natarajan, Ilavarasi and V.N. Sudhakaran, and sentenced all to four-year simple imprisonment. Jayalalithaa was also fined ₹100 crores and her associates were fined ₹10 crore each. The case had political implications as it was the first case where a ruling chief minister had to step down on account of a court sentence. She was convicted for the third time overall and was forced to step down from the chief minister's office for the second time.

Due to her resignation O. Panneerselvam was sworn in as Chief Minister on 29 September 2014. Jayalalithaa was denied bail by the High Court and moved the Supreme Court for bail. The Supreme Court granted bail on 17 October 2014. On 11 May 2015, the high court of Karnataka said she was acquitted from that case, and she has subsequently sworn in again as Chief Minister. On 22 September 2016, she was admitted to Apollo Hospital, Chennai due to fever and dehydration. After the prolonged illness, she died on 5 December 2016.

Expansion beyond Tamil Nadu and Puducherry

Under Jayalalithaa's regime, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has spread out beyond Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and state units have been established in the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. The party floated 54 candidates across the state of Kerala in the 2006 assembly election and had contested on its own.

In Karnataka the party had members in the state assembly and has to influence in the Tamil-speaking areas of Bangalore and Kolar district. The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has a following in various other places like Mumbai and Delhi. There are also units in various countries where Tamils are present.

V. K. Sasikala & Dhinakaran era (16 December 2016 - 20 August 2017)

After Jayalalithaa's death on 5 December 2016, Jayalalithaa's long-time friend V. K. Sasikala was selected unanimously as the General Secretary of the party on 16 December 2016. On February 5, 2017, she was selected as the leader of the legislative assembly for becoming chief minister. O. Panneerselvam rebelled against V.K.Sasikala and reported that he had been compelled to resign as Chief Minister, bringing in a new twist to Tamil Nadu and Dravidian Politics. Due to a conviction in Disproportionate assets case against Jayalalithaa, V.K.Sasikala was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment in the Bengaluru Jail. Before that, she appointed Edappadi K. Palaniswami as legislative party leader (Chief Minister) and T. T. V. Dhinakaran as the deputy general secretary of AIADMK party. With the support of 123 MLAs, Edappadi K. Palaniswami became chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

On 23 March 2017, the election commission of India gave separate party symbols to the two factions; O. Panneerselvam's faction is AIADMK (PURATCHI THALAIVI AMMA), while Edappadi K. Palaniswami's faction is AIADMK (AMMA).

By-polls were announced at the RK Nagar constituency which was vacated due to Jayalalitha's demise, however the election commission canceled the by-polls after evidence of large scale bribing by the ruling AIADMK (AMMA) surfaced. On 17 April 2017, Delhi police registered a case against Dhinakaran who was also the candidate for AIADMK (AMMA) for the by-poll at RK Nagar regarding an allegation of attempting to bribe the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the AIADMK's election symbol. However the Tis Hazari Special Court granted him bail on the grounds that the police had failed to identify the public official allegedly bribed. T.T.V. Dhinakaran started his party work on 5 August 2017. However the chief minister Edappadi Palaniswamy had a fallout with Dhinakaran and announced that the appointment of T.T.V. Dinakaran as deputy general secretary was invalid.

O. Panneerselvam & Edappadi K. Palaniswami era (21 August 2017 - Present)

On 21 August 2017, both EPS and OPS factions of the AIADMK merged and O. Panneerselvam was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister, Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu and the convener (chairman) of AIADMK. He also holds portfolios of Housing, Rural Housing, Housing Development, Slum Clearance Board and Accommodation Control, Town Planning, Urban Development, and Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority.

A day after the merger of two AIADMK factions, 19 MLAs owing allegiance to ousted deputy general secretary T. T. V. Dhinakaran on 22 April 2017 submitted letters to Governor, expressing lack of confidence in Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and withdrawing support from the government. However the Madras High Court extended its stay on the floor test and by-elections on 18 seats of the dissident MLAs until further notice hence securing Palaniswami government. The election commission of India on 23 November 2017 granted the two leaves symbol to the EPS-OPS camp.

Policies

MGR indicated he never "favored anti-Brahminism and ADMK would oppose ethnic exclusion". Janaki and Jayalalithaa were later fighting for the lead position. The ADMK sought to depoliticise the education policy of the government by not insisting on the medium of education to be the Tamil language. Policies of ADMK were targeted to the poorer segments of Tamil society – poor, rickshaw pullers, and destitute women and centralising the massive noon meal scheme for children. There was ambivalent approach towards the reservation policy and interests of farmers.

The AIADMK and its prime opposition party, the DMK have posted an array of populist schemes targeting the human development index of the state. Most of the schemes are accused to be targeting garner larger electoral support. Both the parties have schemes listed in the election manifestos covering various segments of the population involving fishermen, farmers, and school children. Till the 2000s, the parties had welfare schemes like maternity assistance, subsidized public transport, and educational grants. After the 2000s, the parties started competing at an increasing level over the distribution of consumer goods. The ADMK government distributed free cycles to class 11 and class 12 students during its tenure of 2001–06. The DMK, in competition, promised free color televisions in its manifesto in 2006 elections. The competition continued during the 2011 elections when both parties announced free laptops for schools students and grinder, mixer and fans for public.

Criticism

Being a popular actor, his fan clubs became the electoral mobilization. The head of his fan club association, R.M. Veerappan, became a lieutenant, and fellow actress J. Jayalalithaa was groomed as a possible heir apparent. There was a near administrative collapse during the MGR's rule, and the state's rank in industrial production dropped from 3rd in the nation in 1977 to 13th position in 1987. There were a number of populist schemes that consumed two-thirds of the state's budget and resulted in long-term economic costs. MGR was running a centralised administration which underwent severe toll on the state administration during his extended period of ill health.

Jayalalithaa was also accused of creating a personality cult, with fans and party activists calling her 'Amma' ('mother' in Tamil). Her face adorned food canteens, pharmacies, salt packets, laptop computers, baby care kits, bottled water, medicine shops and cement bags in the state. Following her imprisonment on 27 September 2014, her grief-stricken supporters held protests and wept openly. Her replacement - the party's faithful and former minister O. Panneerselvam - also wept during his inauguration, with colleagues saying they were in mourning. Due to the centralized leadership of Jayalalithaa, and the lack of the chain of command, the state of Tamil Nadu was experiencing policy paralysis, with most legislators and party cadres protesting against her conviction with hunger fasts, road and rail blockades.

Election history

Tamil Nadu

Year	Election	Votes polled	Seats won/seats contested
02-04-1973	5th Assembly		11
31-01-1976	5th Assembly		16
1977	6th Assembly	5,194,876	132/155
1977	6th Lok Sabha	5,365,076	17
1980	7th Assembly	7,303,010	129/177
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 (Janaki faction)
1989	9th Assembly		27 (Jayalalithaa faction)
1989	9th Lok Sabha	4,518,649	11
1991	10th Assembly	10,940,966	164/168
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	14,149,681	150/160
2014	16th Lok Sabha	18,115,825	37/39
2016	15th Assembly	17,617,060	136/234

Puducherry

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	0
1985	6th Assembly	47,521	6
1990	7th Assembly	76,337	3
1991	8th Assembly	67,792	6
1996	9th Assembly	57,678	3
1998	12th Lok Sabha	102,622	1
2001	10th Assembly	59,926	5
2006	11th Assembly		5
2016	12th Assembly		4

Chief Ministers

Chief ministers and deputy chief ministers from AIADMK are:

1. M. G. Ramachandran (1977–1987)
2. V. R. Nedunchezhiyan (24 December 1987 – 7 January 1988)
3. Janaki Ramachandran (1988)
4. Jayalalithaa (1991–1996, 2001, 2002–2006, 2011–2014, 2015-2016, 23 May 2016 – 5 December 2016)
5. O. Panneerselvam (2001–2002, 2014-2015, 6 December 2016 – 16 February 2017)
6. Edappadi K. Palaniswami (16 February 2017 - incumbent)

Deputy Chief Ministers

1. O. Panneerselvam (21 August 2017 - incumbent)

References

• Ahuja, M. L. (1998), Electoral politics and general elections in India, 1952–1998, New Delhi: Mittal Publication, ISBN 81-7099-711-9.
• Kohli, Atul (1990), Democracy and discontent: India's growing crisis of governability, Canada: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-39692-1.
• Mahendra Singh, Geetha Kamalakshi (2006), India votes: Lok Sabha & Vidhan Sabha elections 2001–2005, New Delhi: Sarup & Sons, ISBN 81-7625-647-1.
• Murali, Geetha Kamalakshi; University of California, Berkeley (2007), Tracing the signs: Voter mobilization and the functionality of ideas in ..., MI: ProQuest LLC.
• Sinha, Aseema (2005), The regional roots of developmental politics in India: a divided leviathan, IN, USA: Indiana University Press, ISBN 0-253-34404-2.
• Thol, Thirumaavalavan; Meena Kandaswamy, Uproot Hindutva: the fiery voice of the liberation panthers, Kolkata, ISBN 81-85604-79-7.
• "Jaya Network". Jaya Network. Archived from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• "Dr. Namathu MGR". Dr. Namathu MGR. Retrieved 17 January 2012.

External links

• IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
• Official website
• Support AIADMK