Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is a political party from India, which has a major influence on the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is currently the ruling party of Tamil Nadu and is a part of the Indian political front known as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). DMK is a Dravidian party, adhering to the socio-democratic and social justice principles based of C. N. Annadurai and Periyar E. V. Ramasamy. It was founded in 1949 by Annadurai as a breakaway faction from the Dravidar Kazhagam, which was headed by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy.
Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin is an Indian Tamil politician serving as the 8th and current Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He is the son of the former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, He has also served as president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party since 28 August 2018. He was the 37th Mayor of Chennai from 1996 to 2002 and 1st Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 2009 to 2011. M.K. Stalin was placed 30th on the list of India's Most powerful Personalities in 2019 by the Indian Express.
Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai, popularly known as Anna also known as Arignar Anna or Perarignar Anna, was an Indian politician who served as the fifth and last Chief Minister of Madras State from 1967 until 1969 and first Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for 20 days before his death. He was the first member of a Dravidian party to hold either post.
Tamil Nadu Legislative Council was the upper house of the former bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It began its existence as Madras Legislative Council, the first provincial legislature for Madras Presidency. It was initially created as an advisory body in 1861, by the British colonial government. It was established by the first Indian Council Act of 1861, enacted in the British parliament in the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Its role and strength were later expanded by the second Council Act of 1892. Limited election was introduced in 1909. The Council became a unicameral legislative body in 1921 and eventually the upper chamber of a bicameral legislature in 1937. After India became independent in 1947, it continued to be the upper chamber of the legislature of Madras State, one of the successor states to the Madras Presidency. It was renamed as the Tamil Nadu Legislative Council when the state was renamed as Tamil Nadu in 1969. The Council was abolished by the M. G. Ramachandran administration on 1 November 1986. In 2010 the DMK regime headed by M. Karunanidhi tried to revive the Council. The current AIADMK regime has expressed its intention not to revive the council and has passed a resolution in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in this regard.
Ma. Subramanian is an Indian Tamil lawyer, businessman and politician. He serves as a Minister for Health and Family Welfare of Tamilnadu since 7th May 2021. He served as Mayor of Chennai from 2006–2011, the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He is a member of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party. He is a lawyer by profession and he lives in Guindy Labour Colony.
Dravidian parties include an array of regional political parties in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, which trace their origins and ideologies either directly or indirectly to the Dravidian movement of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy. The Dravidian movement was based on the linguistic divide in India, where most of the Northern Indian, Eastern Indian and Western Indian languages are classified as Indo-Aryan, whereas the South Indian languages are classified as Dravidian. Dravidian politics has developed by associating itself to the Dravidian community. The original goal of Dravidian politics was to achieve social equality, but it later championed the cause of ending the domination of North India over the politics and economy of the South Indian province known as Madras Presidency.
Erode Venkatappa Krishnasamy Sampath(c. 5 March 1926 – 23 February 1977), usually referred to as E. V. K. Sampath was a prominent politician from Tamil Nadu, India. He was an advocate of the Dravidian Movement of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy and was considered by some as his political heir. He later split from Periyar's Dravidar Kazhagam to form Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) along with C. N. Annadurai. In spite of being one of the founders of DMK he later left and formed his own party, by the name, Tamil National Party. Nevertheless, he later merged his party with the Indian National Congress. He is a former Member of Parliament from the constituency of Namakkal
Kalyanasundaram Anbazhagan was an Indian politician. He was a long-standing leader of the Dravidian movement and was the General Secretary of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party for nine terms. He has held several cabinet ministerial portfolios in the Tamil Nadu government under M. Karunanidhi including Finance, Education and Health and Social Welfare. He was elected as a member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on nine occasions. He was earlier elected to the Lok Sabha the lower house of India's Parliament from Tiruchengode and was also a member of the Madras Legislative Council. He was popularly referred to as Perasiriyar (Professor), though he was a Lecturer in Tamil in Pachaiyappa's College before resigning to contest elections in 1957.
K. N. Nehru an Indian Tamil politician and Minister for Municipal Administration, Urban and Water Supply. He is the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of the Tiruchirappalli West constituency. He is a former Minister for Transport in the Government of Tamil Nadu. He has been elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on four occasions as a candidate of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party. He presently elevated as Principal Secretary of DMK.
Si. Balasubramania Athithan 27 September 1905 – 24 May 1981), popularly called as "Adithanar", was an Indian lawyer, politician, minister and founder of the Tamil daily newspaper Dina Thanthi. He was the founder of the We Tamils party. He served as a member of the Madras Legislative Council for two terms and as a member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for four terms. He was the Speaker of the Assembly during 1967–68 and Tamil Nadu's minister for Cooperation in the M. Karunanidhi cabinets of 1969 and 1971. In his memory, two Tamil literary awards were created and are awarded annually by his son, Sivanthi Adithanar.
The first legislative assembly Election to the Madras state based on universal adult suffrage was held in March 1952. This was the first election held in Madras state after the Indian Independence. This election was officially known as the 1951 Madras State Election, even though through delays, actual voting didn't take place until early 1952.
The second legislative assembly election to the Madras state was held on 31 March 1957. This was the first election held after the linguistic reorganization of Madras state in 1954. Indian National Congress and its leader K. Kamaraj won the election, and defeated its rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. In 1954, due to the resignation of C. Rajagopalachari, for his controversial Kula Kalvi Thittam, the leadership of Congress was contested, between K. Kamaraj, and C. Subramaniam. Eventually, K. Kamaraj, won the support of the party, was elected leader and chief minister of Madras State in 1954. In a surprise move, he appointed both M. Bhaktavatsalam and C. Subramaniam, in his cabinet, allowing great unity amongst Congress, that ruled the state of Madras, for the next decade. This election saw future DMK leaders, M. Karunanidhi and K. Anbazhagan winning their first MLA seat in the legislative assembly.
The third legislative assembly election to the Madras state was held on 21 February 1962. The Indian National Congress party, led by K. Kamaraj, won the election. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam made significant in-roads in the election and emerged as the second party for the first time by winning 50 seats.
The 1998 Indian general election polls in Tamil Nadu were held for 39 seats in the state. New elections were called when Indian National Congress (INC) left the United Front government led by I. K. Gujral, after they refused to drop the regional Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party from the government after the DMK was linked by an investigative panel to Sri Lankan separatists blamed for the killing of Rajiv Gandhi. The result was a landslide victory for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) winning 29 seats, which helped result in Atal Bihari Vajpayee being sworn in as the 16th Prime Minister of India. J. Jayalalithaa and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, broke off from their long alliance with Indian National Congress and formed an alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party, by joining the National Democratic Alliance. This state proved to be very important in determining the prime minister, since the 18 seats of AIADMK proved valuable for BJP to hold power. That was short-lived, since the AIADMK left the alliance in less than a year, and BJP lost the vote of confidence resulting in fresh elections being called.
Late ShriS. Natarajan Udayar was an Indian politician and 3 time DMK MLA from Thanjavur Constituency. A close friend and supporter of Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy, he was an early member of Dravidar Kazhagam. His association with Aringar C N Annadurai made him part ways with E.V.R. politically and join Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) as one of the earliest and founding members of DMK.
Panruti S. Ramachandran is an Indian Tamil politician and former Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu.
Muthuvelayudha Perumal Appavu is an Indian Tamil politician and Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Tamil Nadu. He is the current Speaker of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. He has contested in the Radhapuram state assembly constituency on several occasions on behalf of various political parties.
Reservation policy in Tamil Nadu is a system of affirmative action that provides historically disadvantaged groups representation in education, employment and politics. The reservations in the state rose from 41 percent in 1954 to 69 percent in 1990.
Puspanathan Wilson is a Senior Advocate in India and has served as the Additional Solicitor General of India between August 2012 and May 2014 and the Additional Advocate General of the State of Tamil Nadu between August 2008 and May 2011.
Hariharan Raja Sharma also known as H. Raja is an Indian politician. He started his political-social life as an Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh promoter. He was a MLA representing the Karaikudi constituency in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from 2001 to 2006. He was one of the national secretaries of the Bharatiya Janata Party from 2014 to 2020.
