Chief Ministership of MGR : M.G.Ramachandran became the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu in 1977 and remained in office till his death in 1987. Members of AIADMK became the first Dravidian and non-Congress party from Tamil Nadu to become ministers in the Union Cabinet, in 1979. AIADMK won each and every Assembly Elections in TamilNadu as long as MGR was alive. Jayalalitha, the later

Chief minister of TamilNadu was mentored by MGR.


Jayalalitha's Leadership of AIADMK : After the death of MGR, the AIADMK was split into two, one headed by MGR's wife Janaki Ramachandran and the other by J.Jayalalitha. But after the
defeat of AIADMK in the 1989 Elections, both the fractions merged into one and Jayalalitha took over the leadership of the party. She was elected as the General Secretary of the AIADMK. J.Jayalalitha was elected to the legislative assembly in 1991 and became the first elected woman chief minister of Tamil Nadu and served the full term(June 24, 1991 - May 12, 1996). She lost power to DMK in 1996, but returned with a huge majority in 2001 elections. But in the 2006 elections, she again lost to DMK led alliance.

Control of the Government by Dravidian Parties : There were many splits in AIADMK and DMK. But from 1967, till date, one of these two parties has held power in the state. Both DMK and AIADMK have devolution of power to states and less power to the Union (Central) Government of India in their election manifestos. Marumalarchi DMK founded by Vaiko and Dravida Kazhagam (DK), founded by Periyar EVR and now headed by Veeramani, also have similar goals. In recent years DMK has taken on a more global approach. They were successful in convincing the Indian Government to adopt Tamil as its classical language and have greatly contributed to Tamil literature. Control of the government has been passed back and forth between AIADMK and DMK. In the most recent elections in 2006, AIADMK was defeated by DMK.

Other Poliltical Parties in TamilNadu - MDMK, PMK, and DMDK : Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) was formed in 1992, by Mr. V.Gopalswamy (Vaiko). His sympathy for Srilankan Tamil's cause is known to everyone. He was the ideological protege of M.Karunanidhi, split to create the MDMK, alleging nepotism within the DMK and the rise of Karunanidhi's son M.K. Stalin.


Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) was founded by Dr. S. Ramdoss. PMK is based amongst the Vanniar caste, an OBC community. PMK is mainly based in the northern half of the state.

Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) was formed by Tamil cinema actor "Captain" Vijayakanth, in 2005. The party contested in all 234 seats in the state elections in May 2006. Surprisingly, the party polled almost 3 million votes (about 10% share).

Tamil Nadu State Assembly Election, 2006 : The contest was between two major alliances in a seat-sharing agreement, the AIADMK alliance and the DMK alliance. These arch rivals had a face-off in 106 seats. DMK Alliance consisted of DMK, Congress, PMK, CPIM, CPI and Muslim League. The AIADMK alliance consisted of AIADMK, MDMK, DPI, INL, IUML, MMK, Forward Bloc (Subhasist) and Janata Dal (Secular). The ruling AIADMK was voted out of power with the DMK alliance regaining power after losing out in the previous elections.