All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Leader	J. Jayalalitha
Founded	MG Ramachandran, October 17, 1972
Headquarters	226, Avvai Shanmugam Salai, Roayapettah, Chennai - 600014
Newspaper	Dr.Namathu MGR
Ideology	Social Democratic, Populist
Political position	Center
Alliance	National Democratic Alliance (1998 & 2004-06)</br>Third Front (2008-present)
Seats in Lok Sabha	9 / 545
Seats in Rajya Sabha	5 / 245
Seats in Legislative Assembly	150 / 234
Website
aiadmkallindia.org
Party flag
Politics of India Political parties Elections

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) (Tamil: அனைத்திந்திய அண்ணா திராவிட முன்னேற்ற கழகம்) 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. The party headed its coalition to win the Tamil Nadu assembly election 6 times to head the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.

MGR era[link]

Neduchezhiyan, Karunanidhi and MGR

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 Kazhagam (DMK) led by M. Karunanidhi, the then chief minister of Tamil Nadu, owing to differences between the two.^[1] The party leaders intentionally prefixed "All India" (AI) tag before the party name, leaving no doubt about its stand on separation, when emergency (1975-77 CE) was in force.^[2] Relations between the two parties have 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.^[3] The party tasted victory in the parliamentary by elections by winning the Dindigul by-election in 1973 and also the Coimbatore assembly by-election in 1974.^[3]

The government led by the DMK, was dismissed by a Central promulgation of corruption charges. 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. MGR remained in power for eleven years till his death in 1987 winning three consecutive assembly elections held in 1977, 1980 and 1984.^[1]

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.^[2]

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.^[4] 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 with the opposite DMK party continuing the electoral alliance with Congress party. Reversing the trend of 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 June 9, 1980.^[4]

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.^[5] MGR continued to enjoy popular support in his third tenure, which ended with his demise on December 24, 1987.^[5]

Succession crisis [link]

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 and the opposing Janaki and Jayalalitha factions winning 2 and 27 seats respectively.^[5] 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 [link]

ADMK head office in Chennai

The AIADMK allied with Congress and swept to power in the elections of 1991 under the leadership of Jayalalitha. Many political observers have ascribed the landslide victory to the anti-incumbent wave arising out of the assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi^[5] 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.^[6][7] DMK's alliance with Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), headed by G.K. Moopanar and support by popular cine actor Rajinikanth also attributed to the rout of ADMK in the elections.^[6] ADMK could win only 4 seats it contested.^[6]

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.

The ADMK went in alliance with MDMK, the rebel party of Vaiko from the DMK during the parliamentary elections in 1998.^[6] ADMK shared power with BJP in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee headed government between 1998-1999.^[2] The ADMK could not be part of any ministry in the centre after it.^[2]

The DMK held power till 2001, when the Jayalalithaa lead ADMK alliance won the 2001 election and Jayalalitha was sworn in as the chief minister on 14th May 2001.^[8] During the assembly elections in 2001, the Jayalalitha led ADMK alliance came back to power winning 132 of the 141 seats contested.^[9] Due to the proceedings in disproportionate assets case, she was prevented from holding office. O.Panneerselvam, was appointed as the chief minister on 21st September till Jayalalitha assumed office on 2nd March 2002.^[8]

She undertook economic reforms and took many popular decisions^{[citation needed]} 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 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. Jayalalitha assumed office for the 3rd term on 16th May 2011.^[8]

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 Jayalalitha 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.

Recently she made an effort to attract youths, by forming Ilaignar Pasarai. 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.^[10]

Jayalalitha

Policies[link]

The ADMK moved from the anti-Hindi and anti-Brahman stand of the DMK party ideologies formulated by Annadurai.^[11] MGR indicated he never "favored anti-Brahminism and ADMK would oppose ethnic exclusion".^[12] Two Brahmin ladies Janaki and Jayalalitha were later fighting for the lead position.^[11] The ADMK sought to depoliticize 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 centralizing the massive noon meal scheme for children.^[12] There was ambivalent approach towards the reservation policy and interest of farmers.^[12]

Criticism[link]

MGR, during his period did not attempt to build party organization.^[13] Being a popular actor, his fan clubs became the electoral mobilization - the head of his fan club association, R.M. Veerappan became a lieutinant and fellow actress, J. Jayalilatha was groomed as a possible heir apparent.^[13] There was a near administrative collapse during the ADMK rule with the industrial dropping from 3rd position in 1977 to 13th position in 1987.^[13] There were lot of populous schemes which consumed two-thirds of the state's budget and resulted in unconscionable long-term economic costs.^[13] MGR was running a centralized administration which underwent severe toll on the state administration during his ill-health for an elongated period.^[14] During the Mahamaham stampede during 1992, the Government of Tamil Nadu ADMK announced a compensation of one lakh rupees^[15] for the deceased, which included a sum of 30,000 rupees given by the AIADMK party that ruled the state that time. It was widely criticised by the media that a government announcement was made together with a party announcement.^[16]

Election history [link]

Tamil Nadu [link]

Pondicherry [link]

Media[link]

Dr. Namathu MGR is a daily Tamil newspaper started on 11th July 1998.^[19] Jaya TV network has a group of channels namely Jaya TV, Jaya Max and Jaya Plus.^[20]

Chief ministers[link]

Chief ministers and deputy chief ministers from ADMK are:

1. M. G. Ramachandran
2. Janaki Ramachandran
3. J. Jayalalithaa
4. O. Panneerselvam

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links [link]

• Official website for All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam :: www.aiadmkallindia.org
• Official website for Dr Namathu MGR Publication :: www.drmgr.org
• Information about AIADMK on Indian-Elections.com
• BBM interview in Indian Express, 08 July 2009 about AIADMK Plans to Launch 10 Websites

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Purno Agitok Sangma (born September 1, 1947, Meghalaya, India) is an Indian politician. He is a former Speaker of Lok Sabha and Chief Minister of Meghalaya. He was a co-founder of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and remained a member of the Lok Sabha for eight terms, i.e. 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th Lok Sabha. Currently he represents the Tura (ST) constituency in the West Garo Hills district in the eighth Meghalaya Legislative Assembly.^[1]

Early life and education[link]

P. A. Sangma was born on 1 September 1947 in village Chapathi in West Garo Hills, Meghalaya to Dipchon Ch. Marak and Smt. Chimri A. Sangma.

After completing his graduation in (B.A. (Hons.) from St. Anthony's College, Shillong, he went to Dibrugarh University in Assam for his Masters degree in International Relations. Subsequently, he also obtained a degree in Law (LL.B).

Career[link]

In 1973, he became Vice-President of the Pradesh Youth Congress in Meghalaya and became the General Secretary the next year. He served as the General Secretary of the Pradesh Congress Committee of Meghalaya from 1975 to 1980.

In 1977, he was elected to the 6th Lok Sabha from Tura (Lok Sabha constituency) and remained a member of the Lok Sabha until 14th Lok Sabha, except for the 9th Lok Sabha. From 1980 to 1988, he served the Union Government of India under various capacities. He served as the Chief Minister of Meghalaya from 1988 to 1990. In 1991, when he was elected to the Lok Sabha again, he again served the Union government until 1996 when he became Speaker of Lok Sabha.

He was one of the founders of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) along with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar in 1999, after they expelled from Congress.^[2] In January 2004, P.A.Sangma created a split in the NCP. This happened after Sharad Pawar became close to the NCP's former rival Sonia Gandhi. After losing a battle for the NCP election symbol, Sangma later merged his faction with Mamta Bannerjee's Trinamool Congress, forming the Nationalist Trinamool Congress. He resigned from his Lok Sabha seat on October 10, 2005 as a member of All India Trinamool Congress, and was reelected as NCP. candidate on February 2006.

In the Lok Sabha elections 2004 Sangma was one of two NTC MPs elected. He resigned from 14th Lok Sabha in March 2008, to take part in Meghalaya Legislative Assembly election, 2008

As of now (2009), Sangma is back in the NCP and serves as the NCP General Secretary.

Cabinet positions held[link]

• 1991-93 - Union Minister of State, Coal (Independent Charge)
• 1993-95 - Union Minister of State, Labour (Independent Charge)
• February–September 1995 - Union Minister of State, Labour
• 1995-96 - Union Cabinet Minister of Information and Broadcasting

Personal life[link]

Sangma's daughter Agatha Sangma was elected in the same constituency in the 15th Lok Sabha elections, and is also the youngest Minister of State in the current Cabinet. His son Conrad Sangma, is the Leader of the Opposition in Meghalaya Legislative Assembly.^[3]

Notable quotes[link]

• "Adventurism is easy, but restraint is far more difficult." - Against nuclear weapons in Lok Sabha debate
• "Do you want to kill the whole world nine times? Do you want to kill the whole world 13 times? And, how can you kill a person a second time?" - Against nuclear weapons in Lok Sabha debate

References[link]

External links[link]

• Biography - From Lok Sabha Speakers' official site
• XII LOK SABHA DEBATES - Sangma's famous debate against nuclear weapons
• Interview with Sangma by Rediff on NCP split up

See also[link]

• Politics of India
• Nuclear disarmament