AIADMK celebrates 41st anniversary

Swarmed by her ministerial colleagues, senior partymen and scores of supporters, Jayalalithaa hoisted the party flag at the AIADMK headquarters here and garlanded the statue of Ramachandran.

She also distributed sweets and released a special souvenir on the occasion.

In her Founding Day message, Jayalalithaa, who now nurtures a bigger national role during the next Lok Sabha polls, exuded confidence that the people who had unseated the Karunanidhi government last year, will give a more resounding success to AIADMK in the future.

In an indirect reference to the 2G scam without naming her party's arch rival DMK, she said people had rejected those who had "looted the nation of several lakhs of crores, brought disrepute to Tamil Nadu at the national level by indulging in unprecedented scams and hindering the progress of the state."

"Evil forces are trying to raise again thinking people would have forgotten their miseries. We know that people would not allow it to happen," Jayalalithaa, who led the party to a landslide victory in last year's Assembly elections, said.

Ramachandran, fondly addressed by his fans as MGR, founded AIADMK following bitter differences with Karunanidhi, and first lead his party to power in 1977.

Rising as a formidable rival to the DMK, which was instrumental in installing the first non-Congress government in 1967 in the state, AIADMK's birth literally led to a bi-polarisation in Tamil Nadu politics.

One of these two Dravidian parties have been taking over the ruling mantle since 1967.

Jayalalithaa, who managed to wrest control of AIADMK following rivalry with another faction of the party in the wake of MGR's demise, led it to a massive win in the 1991 general elections, taking over as Chief Minister for the first time then.