TN Politics: How did Jayalalitha become the Cheif Minister of Tamil Nadu (after MGR's demise) surpassing all the senior leaders within the party?
After MGR's demise the AIADMK party still had two years to rule . Instead of selecting a good second rung leader, the party choose Mrs Janaki MGR, the widow of MGR as the next CM. This created a vertical split in party. The majority of the party MLA's under the leadership of the then minister RMV were supporting her. A group of about 33 MLAs under the leadership of Thirunavakkurasu (now in Cong) and Sattur KKSSR Ramachandran (now in DMK) were opposing her. These two leaders along with their MLA were actually supporting Jayalalitha. Jayalalitha was not even an MLA then. Though the Janaki MGR Govt won the vote of confidence, the govt was dismissed based on some flimsy reasons by Rajiv Gandhi govt then. Whole of 1988 TN was under presidents rule. Rajiv Gandhi tried his best to woo the TN to give an alternative govt. He used to visit TN regularly and do some stunts like visitng villagers huts et all (like Rhaul is doing now). Elections were held in 1989 for TN Assembly. There wer four major fronts - DMK, AIADMK -1 and AIADMK 2, and Cong. AIADMK had two factions - one lead by Janaki MGR and the other by Jayalalitha. DMK won the elections comfortably, Jayalalitha lead AIADMK came second and Congress third. The other AIADMK faction was completely routed (Even Sivaji Ganesan, the popular cini actor, who walked away from congress and started his own party, supporting AIADMK faction 1 was defeated). Now the realignment process started in AIADMK - Jayalalitha became the moral leader as she was won more seats than the earlier faction - AIADMK became united - and more importantly they got the Two Leaves symbol back. ( The party symbol is so important - by itself it is has become a brand - worth studying for a PhD).From 1989 to 1991 Jan, DMK was ruling the state. In the centre Chandrasekhar become the PM with the support of Cong-I. Jayalalitha with the help of Rajiv ensured the dismissal of DMK govt with the pretext of them supporting LTTE.1991 elections came. Just before elections RG assasinated. Congress and AIADMK reaped the harvest. DMK was decimated. AIADMK formed the govt. And Jayalallitha became CM.
How did TASMAC come into Tamil Nadu?
Originally Answered Many Hindu radical groups protested against PT news channel for a debate on value of mangala sutra and even one of the groups bombed the media office. Currently many women in the Tamilnadu are loosing their mangala sutra due to TASMAC. Why aren’t they protesting against the government to ban liquor in the state?TASMAC is originally Tamilnadu State Marketing Corporation.Some Background:Tamil Nadu is a State where Liquor was prohibited till 1971 (Almost 23 years Liquor was prohibited in TN). Liquor sales came back into existence after that.Indira Gandhi announced that the States which stops Liquor prohibition will be funded some money for the Government's usage. Because Tamil Nadu Government had lack of funds for the Development of the State and M. Karunanidhi who was CM during that time asked Centre to provide some funds and Indira Gandhi refused and came up with a reason for bringing back Liquor into existence. To get those funds M. Karunanidhi allowed Liquor sales.Is Karunanidhi the one who introduced Liquors to Tamil people? No? There were many Illicit Liquor sold around TN and many cases were filed. Whoever had chances to see many old Rajini movies you would have heard this. There were Illicit Liquors and there were people who drunk that and fell dead. M. Karunanidhi thought of making Illicit Liquor to Liquor and planned to earn profit out of it for the Government.During 1971 there were approximately 10,000 Liquor shops around Tamilnadu. Now, comes our M.G.R into the scene and he promised Liquor will be prohibited and this was also one of the reason he was abandoned by DMK and MGR formed a new party called AIADMK. When MGR came into rule he prohibited Liquor but within 2 years he withdrawn the act. Until then India was exporting branded Liquors but MGR gave license to 4 Local Breweries to produce Branded Liquors and the count increased later on.Karunanidhi gave an idea that Government can run Liquor shops which in turn will earn high profits for the Government to run the State. Karunanidhi was the one who passed the Bill but J.Jayalalitha is the one who brought that act into existence during 2006 and the rest is History... :PThanks for A2A
Did M.G.R really do any good to Tamilnadu as C.M.?
I followed politics in TN throughout his regime. MGR was a joke.MGR had the supreme advantage of being "Not Karunanidhi". Karunanidhi was truly detested at that time and people were willing to vote for MGR just to keep him out of power. MGR won elections in 1977 and 1980 because of this. His AIADMK party would have won anyway in 1984 but his ill-health and Indira Gandhi's assassination led to a wave in favour of the AIADMK.His regime from 1984 onwards was terrible and it's possible that he would have done much worse in the 1989 elections if he had lived. However, he passed away in 1987, the AIADMK party split and Karunanidhi's DMK returned to power.MGR was by nature extremely distrustful and did not have any kind of team. He also believed in keeping his partymen and ministers insecure and off-balance, so that they are ever-anxious to please him in order to win his favour. To give you a flavour of what living in Tamil Nadu was like in the mid-1980s, MGR was very ill and hardly ever went to work. On the rare occasion when he did, the "Indian Express" newspaper would print satirical front-page headlines like "Chief Minister visits secretariat today" and, even worse, "Chief Minister takes interest in the affairs of the state". Ummm ... isn't that, like, you know, his job?Since he didn't delegate and since he didn't attend to work himself, files just piled up and the administration ground to a halt. At least from 1977-80 MGR was not corrupt, but that changed in the 1980s and he surpassed the records in corruption set by Karunanidhi.1950s and 1960s: Kamaraj & the Congress:Administration not corrupt and had some very talented administrators like C Subramaniam, R Venkataraman etc.1970s: Karunanidhi's regime:State becomes a corrupt cess-pool under Karunanidhi who is, however, an active CM1980s: MGR's regime:State remains a corrupt cess-pool and the CM becomes inactive.