All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

அனைத்திந்திய அண்ணா திராவிட முன்னேற்றக் கழகம்
Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Leader J. Jayalalithaa
Founder M. G. Ramachandran
Headquarters 226, Avvai Shanmugam Salai, Royapettah, Chennai – 600014
Ideology Social democracy,
Populism
Political position Centre
ECI Status State Party[1]
Alliance National Democratic Alliance (1998 & 2004–06)
Third Front (2008–present)
Seats in Lok Sabha
37 / 545
Seats in Rajya Sabha
12 / 245
Seats in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
150 / 234
Election symbol
Website
aiadmk.com

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) (lit. All India Anna Dravidian Progress Federation) is a state political party in the states of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, India. 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). Since 1989, AIADMK has been led by J. Jayalalithaa, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, not related to Anna or Selvi Bunce. The party headquarters is located in Royapettah, Chennai, and was donated to the party in 1986 by its former leader Janaki Ramachandran, MGR's wife. Coalitions headed by the party have won the elections to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly six times, making it the most successful political outfit in the state's history.

History

MGR era (1972–1987)

The party was founded in 1972 as Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) by MGR, 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.[2] Later, MGR prefixed the All India (AI) tag to the party's name.[3] 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.[4] 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.[4] 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 till his death in December 1987, winning three consecutive assembly elections held in 1977, 1980 and 1984.[2]

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.[3]

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.[5] 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 reverse 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.[5]

In 1984, even with MGR's failing health and subsequent hospitalisation 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.[6] MGR continued to enjoy popular support in his third tenure, which ended with his demise on 24 December 1987.[6]

Succession crisis (1987–1989)

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.[6] 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–present)

ADMK head office in Chennai

The AIADMK allied with the Congress and swept to power in the assembly elections of 1991 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[6] 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.[7][8]

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.[7] AIADMK shared power with the BJP in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee headed government between 1998 and 1999,[3] but withdrew support a year later, leading to the fall of the BJP government at the centre. Following this, the AIADMK once again aligned 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.[9] 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, Panneerselvam resigned on 2 March 2002, and Jayalalithaa was sworn in again as Chief Minister.[9]

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.[10] 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 it 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.[9] In the Union territory of Puducherry, the party allied with N. Rangasamy's All India NR 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 Asset 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.[11] 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.[12] 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 was subsequently sworn in again as Chief Minister.

Expansion beyond Tamil Nadu and Puducherry

Under Jayalalithaa's regime, AIADMK 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 influence in the Tamil-speaking areas of Bangalore and Kolar district. The AIADMK has a following in various other places like Mumbai and Delhi. There are also units in various countries where Tamils are present.

Policies

The ADMK moved from the anti-Hindi and anti-Brahmin stand of the DMK party ideologies formulated by C.N. Annadurai.[13] MGR indicated he never "favored anti-Brahminism and ADMK would oppose ethnic exclusion".[14] Two Brahmin ladies Janaki and Jayalalithaa were later fighting for the lead position.[13] The ADMK sought to depoliticise the education policy of the government by not insisting on the medium of education to be 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.[14] There was ambivalent approach towards the reservation policy and interests of farmers.[14]

The ADMK 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, subsidised 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 colour 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.[15]

Criticism

MGR, during his period did not attempt to build party organisation.[16] Being a popular actor, his fan clubs became the electoral mobilisation – the head of his fan club association, R.M. Veerappan became a lieutinant and fellow actress, J. Jayalilathaa was groomed as a possible heir apparent.[16] There was a near administrative collapse during the ADMK rule with the industrial dropping from 3rd position in 1977 to 13th position in 1987.[16] There were lot of populist schemes which consumed two-thirds of the state's budget and resulted in unconscionable long-term economic costs.[16] MGR was running a centralised administration which underwent severe toll on the state administration during his ill-health for an elongated period.[17]

Jayalalithaa is also accused of creating a personality cult, with fans and party activists calling her 'Amma' which means 'Mother'. Her face adorns food canteens, pharmacies, salt packets, laptop computers, baby care kits, bottled water, medicine shops and cement bags in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Following her imprisonment on 27 September 2014, her grief-stricken supporters have held protests and wept openly. Her replacement - party faithful and former minister O. Panneerselvam - also wept during his inauguration, with colleagues saying they were in mourning.[18] Due to the centralised 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 blockages. [19] [20]

Election history

Tamil Nadu

Year Election Votes Polled Seats Won/Seats contested
1977 6th Assembly 5,194,876 132/155[4]
1977 6th Lok Sabha 5,365,076 17[21]
1980 7th Assembly 7,303,010 129/177[5]
1980 7th Lok Sabha 4,674,064 2
1984 8th Assembly 8,030,809 134[5]
1984 8th Lok Sabha 3,968,967 12[5]
1989 9th Assembly 148,630 2 (Janaki faction)[6]
1989 9th Assembly 27 (Jayalalithaa faction)[6]
1989 9th Lok Sabha 4,518,649 11[21]
1991 10th Assembly 10,940,966 164/168[7]
1991 10th Lok Sabha 4,470,542 11[21]
1996 11th Assembly 5,831,383 4
1996 11th Lok Sabha 2,130,286 0[21]
1998 12th Lok Sabha 6,628,928 18[22]
1999 13th Lok Sabha 6,992,003 10[21]
2001 12th Assembly 8,815,387 132
2004 14th Lok Sabha 8,547,014 0[21]
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[21]

2016 !! ?

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[21]
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 5
2006 11th Assembly

Chief ministers

Chief ministers and deputy chief ministers from ADMK are:

  1. M. G. Ramachandran (1977–1987)
  2. V. R. Nedunchezhiyan, (3 February 1969 – 10 February 1969 and 24 December 1987 – 7 January 1988).
  3. Janaki Ramachandran (1988)
  4. J. Jayalalithaa (1991–1996, 2001, 2002–2006, 2011–2014, 2015)
  5. O. Panneerselvam (2001–2002,2014-2015)
  6. J. Jayalalithaa (May 2015-Current)

Notes

References

External links

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