AIADMK History
The MGR Era
AIADMK party was founded in October 17, 1972 by Maruthar Gopalamenon Ramachandran (popularly known as MGR), a veteran star of the Tamil film industry (”Kollywood”) and a popular politician, as a breakaway from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (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.
MGR’s title was rechristened from ‘Puratchinadigar‘ to ‘Puratchithalaivar‘ by the party’s Organising Secretary K.A.Krishnasamy owing to popular public demand.
After few months of its birth, ADMK candidate and a lawyer Mayadevar was elected with a huge margin even pushing back the ruling DMK to the third place. Virtually the election was between Cong (0) (lead by Kamaraj) and ADMK. MGR gradually dominated the Tamil Nadu politics and arranged his party in an organised manner. K.A. Krishnaswamy’s “THENNAGAM” a Tamil daily was used as official organ of ADMK.
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, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government dismissed a number of state governments belonging to the opposition parties, including Dr. M.G. Rama-chandran’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 the mythical status of a phoenix. The victory of the AIADMK-Congress combine in the assembly elections seemed so certain that the DMK supremo M. Karuna-nidhi 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.
