M. Fathima Beevi was an Indian judge who was a justice of the Supreme Court of India. Appointed to the apex Court in 1989, she became the first female judge to be a part of the Supreme Court of India, and the first Muslim woman to be appointed to any of the higher judiciaries in the country. On her retirement from the court, she served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission and later as the Governor of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu from 1997 to 2001. In 2023, she was honoured with Kerala Prabha Award, the second-highest honour given by the Government of Kerala. In the 2024 honours list, she was posthumously awarded the Padma Bhushan.
Vaikom Narayani Janaki, also known as Janaki Ramachandran, was an Indian politician, actress and activist who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for 23 days after the death of her husband M. G. Ramachandran, former chief minister of Tamil Nadu. She was the first woman to become the chief minister of Tamil Nadu. She was also the first actress to become the chief minister in the history of India.
K C Palanisamy is an Indian politician, former Member of Parliament (MP) and Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Tamil Nadu (TN). A former member of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), he served the Dravidian party founded by former Chief Minister (CM) of Tamil Nadu, M G Ramachandran (MGR) on 17 October 1972. He was born and raised in Chennimalai, Erode District of Tamil Nadu. At the age of 9, K C Palanisamy met MGR and got influenced by the mission and vision of AIADMK. His political career began aged 13. In 1972, he joined AIADMK as a party member. K C Palanisamy was handpicked by former CM of Tamil Nadu, MGR as Deputy District Secretary of AIADMK’s Youth Wing in 1982, at the age of 23. In 1984, he was elected as the party’s youngest Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Kangeyam constituency in Thiruppur District. In 1989, K C Palanisamy chosen to contest in Assembly election as Member of Parliament (MP) by Jayalalitha and won with the second highest vote difference Nationally and highest difference in the State.
Subburaman Thirunavukkarasar is an Indian politician. He was the State President of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee till 2 February 2019 and former secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) of the Indian National Congress (INC) party. His introduction to politics in 1977 was facilitated by former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. G. Ramachandran. Ramachandran founded the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in 1972 and was facing his first elections for the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election in 1977. He identified Thirunavukkarasar, a lawyer by profession, to contest the Aranthangi assembly constituency. Thirunavukkarasar won the seat, aged 27, and was elected as the Deputy Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. He continued in that capacity till 1980. Subsequently, he served as Tamil Nadu state minister from 1980 to 1987 in the MGR cabinet, holding portfolios that included Industries, Housing Board, Excise and Handlooms. Later, he became a member of the Lok Sabha – the lower house of the Parliament of India – when he won the erstwhile Pudukottai Lok Sabha constituency. He served as Union Minister of state for shipping and later for telecommunications and information technology.
The ninth legislative assembly election of Tamil Nadu was held on 21 January 1989. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) won the election and its leader M. Karunanidhi, became the Chief Minister. It was his third term in office. The DMK was in power only for a short term, as it was dismissed on 31 January 1991 by the Indian Prime minister Chandra Shekhar using Article 356 (Otherwise) of the Indian Constitution.
K. Rajaram was an Indian politician of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and later, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu. He served as the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from 1980 to 1985.
Ramasamy Thamaraikani was an Indian politician from Tamil Nadu and a Member of Legislative Assembly. He was elected to Tamil Nadu state assembly five times from Srivilliputhur constituency, three times as an Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) candidate under M. G. Ramachandran, once as an independent and once as an ADMK candidate under Jayalalitha. He has been referred to as maverick and irrepressible by media.
C. Aranganayagam was an Indian politician. He was elected a member of Tamil Nadu Legislative assembly four times, twice from the Thondamuthur constituency and twice from the Coimbatore West constituency as an Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate. He also served as a Minister of Education in the sixth assembly. Later he joined DMK and quit in 2014 before the Lok Sabha election. He also served as an education minister in the Jayalalitha cabinet for the 1991–96 period. He was one of the supporters of Jayalalitha after MGR's death in 1987.
K. P. Anbalagan also spelt as K. P. Anbazhagan is a Tamil Nadu politician from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party and the former Minister for Higher Education and Agriculture department in Tamil Nadu. KP Anbalagan was born on 30 April 1958 in Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu, India. He won consecutively for 5 terms as a Member of Legislative Assembly of Palacode Constituency which record he holds with his party counterparts O.Panneerselvam and Pollachi V.Jayaraman.
S. Sundararaj is an Indian politician and member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from the Paramakudi constituency. He was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly as an Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Jayalalitha) candidate in the 1989 and 1991 elections. He is the former minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development of the government of Tamil Nadu.
B. Valarmathi is an Indian politician and was a member of the 14th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from Thousand Lights constituency. As a member of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, she was elected from Mylapore in 1984, Alandur constituency in the 2001 and Thousand Lights in 2011 elections. She is currently serving as the Women's Wing Secretary of AIADMK. She also served as Minister in Jayalalithaa cabinet on two occasions. Backwards class and Minority welfare (2001-2006) and Social welfare (2011-2016).
D. Ramasamy was an Indian politician and Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu.
S. Muthusamy is an Indian politician and Member of the Legislative Assembly and minister of Tamil Nadu. He was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly as an Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate from Erode constituency in 1977, 1980 and 1984 elections and from Bhavani constituency in 1991 election. He served as Transport Minister in MGR cabinet and as health minister in Jayalalitha cabinet formed after 1991 election.
K. A. Sengottaiyan is an Indian politician. He is the former Minister for School Education in the Government of Tamil Nadu. He also served as the party presidium chairman and headquarters secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. He is currently the longest serving ADMK MLA along with his opposition counterpart Duraimurugan.
C. Ve. Shanmugam is an Indian politician and Currently he is a Member of Parliament from Tamil Nadu. He is a four time MLA and senior Minister from AIADMK party in Tamilnadu. He was a former member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from Villupuram constituency. As a cadre of Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, he was previously elected to the Tindivanam constituency in 2001 and 2006 elections. He also served as the state's Minister of Education, Law and Commercial Taxes from 2003 to 2006 and from 2011 to 2013 under the leadership of the Chief Minister Jayalalitha. His father was a previous member of the parliament for the Vandhavasi constituency.
Vijayalakshmi Palanisami is a former minister and Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu from Sankagiri constituency. (2011–2016) defeating her uncle and DMK strongman Veerapandi S. Arumugam. Previously, she was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly from Veerapandi constituency as an Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate in 1980, and 1984 elections. Again she was elected from Panamarathupatti in 2001 elections during which she served as Social welfare minister. In 1985, she was made Khadi and Handlooms minister by then Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran, only to be removed from the post along with 10 other ministers in 1986. After the death of ADMK supremo J. Jayalalitha, she was briefly in OPS camp along with former minister Semmalai, but soon returned to partyfold.
R. M. Veerappan is an Indian politician, an early Dravidian Leader, and a movie producer and screenwriter from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He is the founder and leader of the MGR Kazhagam party. He served as a Cabinet Minister in five governments from 1977 to 1996, is a three-time Member of Legislative Council and a two-time member of the Legislative Assembly. He was the Leader of the House for Legislative Assembly and Leader of ADMK party of the Legislative Council. He was the architect behind the ADMK organization, unified the MGR fan clubs for the party formation. He was called as the 'Chanakya' of AIADMK politics in the 70's and 80's.
Jayaram Jayalalithaa was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 1 January 1988 to 5 December 2016, she was the 5th and longest-serving general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), a Dravidian party whose cadre revered her as their "Amma" (Mother) and "Puratchi Thalaivi".
K. A. Jayapal is an Indian politician and was a member of the 14th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from Nagapattinam constituency. He represented the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party.
The Fifteenth Assembly of Tamil Nadu succeeded the Fourteenth Assembly of Tamil Nadu and was constituted after the victory of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and allies in the 2016 state assembly election held on 16 May. J. Jayalalitha assumed office as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the fourth time.
