NEWSLINKS US EDITION SOUTH ASIA COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL DEAR REDIFF THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES US ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
N Sathiya Moorthy in Chennai
The ruling All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu celebrated its 31st birthday on Thursday, with state Chief Minister and party chief J Jayalalithaa hoisting its flag at party headquarters in Chennai.
She garlanded the statute of late M G Ramachandran, the party founder, and released a book on AIADMK's history. She also distributed grants to families of cadres who had lost their lives for the party's cause.
It was this day in 1972 that MGR founded the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam [named after late C N Annadurai, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam founder] after the DMK suspended him on October 11, 1972. He was the treasurer of the DMK, which was ruling Tamil Nadu at that time.
Within a year of its formation the ADMK managed to wrest the Dindigul Lok Sabha seat from the DMK.
The prefix 'All-India' was added during the emergency period [1975-1977] to give it a national look.
The AIADMK won the post-emergency assembly election of 1977, and after MGR died on December 24, 1987, the party split into two factions, one led by his wife, Janaki Ramachandran and the other by Jayalalithaa. Janaki Ramachandran was made the chief minister on January 28, 1988 and continued for a month before failing to secure the vote of confidence in the state assembly.
But the 1989 assembly election, after a spell of President's rule, saw both the factions taste defeat at the hands of archrival DMK, forcing them to merge.
When the Centre dismissed the DMK government and subsequently assembly election was held in 1991 Jayalalithaa swept to power.
But a massive anti-incumbency wave fuelled by charges of corruption annihilated Jayalalithaa in the 1996 election, but she bounced back dramatically in the 2001 election, proving all those who predicted her political demise due to the 'Tansi case' conviction wrong.
The DMK was trounced in the 2001 elections and since then its erstwhile alliance partner, the Tamil Maanila Congress has merged with its parent, the Congress party in August.
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