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What is AIADMK?
Founded in 1972, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is an Indian political party within the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. AIADMK is the main opposition party in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly and part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The southern party was led by the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa (Amma) as general secretary from February 9, 1989 to December 5, 2016 and since July 11, 2022, the party is led by the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu Edappadi K Palaniswami as general secretary.
AIADMK, deeply rooted in Dravidian traditions, attained the first political victory at Dindigul parliamentary by-election in 1973 and it swept to power in the assembly elections of 1991 under the leadership of Jayalalithaa.
AIADMK, deeply rooted in Dravidian traditions, attained the first political victory at Dindigul parliamentary by-election in 1973 and it swept to power in the assembly elections of 1991 under the leadership of Jayalalithaa.
The headquarters of AIADMK is known as 'Puratchi Thalaivar M G R Maaligai' located at Avvai Shanmugam Salai, Royapettah in Chennai.
The AIADMK was formed by the well-known Tamil movie superstar and producer M G Ramachandran in 1972. The party came into existence when MGR split from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). His wife Janaki and another Tamil film star J Jayalalithaa worked hard during the early years of the AIADMK. The party enjoyed the polarised style of voting pattern of the state. However, the death of MGR threw the party in troubled waters.
Later, Jayalalithaa took over the reins of the party as its supremo and helped it become a major force in the state. Since the death of Jayalalithaa in late 2016, however, the party has been in a state of turmoil.
While initially, two factions within the party struggled for internal power, later it was Jayalalithaa’s confidante V K Sasikala staking claim to the political legacy of the dead leader.
Subsequently, after Sasikala was suspended from the party following the Supreme Court reprimanding her in a disproportionate asset case, the two factions — one each led by Edapaddi Palaniswamy and O Panneerselvam — merged and have since been ruling the state government together.
While Palaniswamy is the present chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Panneerselvam, who had previously filled in for Jayalalithaa as CM on three different occasions, is the deputy chief minister.
Among the most prominent party leaders are O Paneerselvam, Edappadi Palaniswami and E Madhusudhanan.