It has been 50 years since the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) came into existence, launched by late MG Ramachandran after he was expelled from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in 1972. Once again the focus of national attention, A mass-based party led only by strong, charismatic leaders for most of its history, the AIADMK is still struggling for an established leadership six years after the death of Jayalalithaa, who led the party to four electoral victories in Tamil Nadu. led. 1991.
The current interim general secretary, Edappadi K Palaniswami, who was chief minister from 2017 to 2021, has consolidated his position as party leader but still faces a legally-driven, but politically weak challenger. O Panneerselvam, who was also the chief minister thrice – Twice when Jayalalithaa faced legal hurdles and once after her death.
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It is no surprise that the deaths of MGR in 1987 and Jayalalithaa in 2016 led to a leadership struggle, as this is a party in which all power is concentrated in a supreme leader, with no second-line leadership. An AIADMK leader famously said that MGR was ‘number one’, and the rest of the party comprised ‘zero’, implying that without the leader, the rest meant nothing. This trend continued during Jayalalithaa’s tenure as well. Its fate is linked to its leading man, and in the absence of a powerful and charismatic leader, the organization has lost millions of members and grassroots workers.
A political party can be defined as a group of people coming together to obtain and exercise political power; or to gain political advantage for the interests of the group. In India, political parties are founded and built around both group interests and individual ambition. Some may advocate regional, linguistic, religious, ethnic or caste identities, or the interests of the working class in general, but there are others who focus solely on bringing one leader to power. To achieve this objective, the leader’s appeal must be broad, if not universal.
creed status
MGR, whose political tenure with the DMK was marked by a conscious effort to project a good image in his films, had achieved cult status even before he decided to form his own party. The result was that the ADMK (with ‘All India’ added to the party’s name later) emerged as a mass-based party. Its mass appeal was based on the promise to protect the weaker sections of society, all communities and castes. In fact, welfarism became its dominant, if not the only, principle; Its political strategy was to include and consolidate the support of all, without appealing exclusively to any one class. A combination of populist measures and promises of more such benefits has been the party’s electoral strategy, and in recent years, cash distribution for votes has been added to the mix.
In the early days, MGR’s support base was spontaneous, as he attracted large sections of DMK members and sympathizers as well as the poor from all regions and communities. A significant section of traditional Congress supporters, including Dalits and farmers, became followers of the AIADMK. Over time, this process gradually ousted the national parties from the political scene of the state. Without strictly following the core Dravidian principles one can say that AIADMK is a Dravidian party. It remains ideology-lite.
As he positioned himself as a challenger to the DMK, MGR’s politics was devoted to attacking his parent party and DMK leader M. Karunanidhi became his main political opponent. Anti-DMK sentiment remains a major motivation for AIADMK supporters even today, and until the DMK is defeated, there is some concern about their party’s policies and programmes. This meant that the AIADMK could be a Dravidian party in name without necessarily sharing all its core principles. Thus, AIADMK office-bearers rarely resorted to the anti-centre and anti-Hindi rhetoric associated with regional politics in Tamil Nadu. MGR also departed from the tradition of rationalism by visiting temples as a devotee. The party contributed to the further assimilation of regional identity with the national mainstream, a process that began with DMK founder CN Annadurai, who himself was known as Anna. Anna formally dropped the demand for a separatist Dravida Nadu in 1962. He Dravidian reformist and ideologue Periyar E. MGR went the extra distance to be friendly with the Center and the Congress. It was no surprise that the AIADMK became the first party to join the central government when two of its members joined the Charan Singh cabinet in 1979. The AIADMK-Congress alliance of 1984 was then considered a ‘natural alliance’ by both the parties. , although the DMK had also been in an electoral alliance with Indira Gandhi’s Congress in 1971 and 1980.
lean to the right
Under Jayalalithaa’s leadership, the Congress alliance continued, but at some point had a right-wing tilt in their approach. She once spoke of supporting ‘kar sevaks’ during the Ayodhya temple movement, and when the time came for it, in 1998, she became the first leader of a Dravidian party to form an electoral alliance with the BJP. The DMK had earlier joined hands with the Janata Party (of which the Jana Sangh was a merged entity) and was part of the National Front government which was supported from outside by the BJP. However, it was not until 1999, when Jayalalithaa toppled the AB Vajpayee government, that the DMK crossed the Dravidian Rubicon by forging an alliance with the BJP, and by 2003 became part of the NDA regime.
One of the characteristics of the AIADMK led by Jayalalithaa was that she was ideologically flexible enough to occupy the entire political space – regional or nationalist – herself. Thus, she could speak up for state rights, question central laws that encroached on state powers, and demand that the Center provide military support to the LTTE on the one hand, even That also to crack down on pro-LTTE elements in the state and claim. That it will not allow any such activity which undermines the sovereignty of the country.
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In today’s times, the AIADMK is clearly struggling to extricate itself from the feeling of being subservient to the BJP. While Mr Palaniswami is showing signs that he is keen to break free from the influence of the ruling party at the Centre, his rival Mr Panneerselvam has been quite open about his obligation to the Centre, without actually giving up his liberal attitude towards it. BJP. Voters’ vigilance about Hindutva party inroads in the state was one of the factors in DMK’s return to power in 2021. This resulted in a revival of interest in the ‘Dravidian model’ of governance as well as an increase in regional pride. , How long the AIADMK can last as an ally of the BJP is a question it will have to face before the next general election.