Edappadi K. Palaniswami, who assumed charge as the general secretary of the AIADMK on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 is the sixth person to hold the post.
Former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who died in December 2016, was the last full-fledged occupant of the post. Even though the party’s general council, at its meeting on December 29 that year, elected Jayalalithaa’s close aide, V.K. Sasikala as the general secretary, this was questioned strongly by former Assembly Speaker P.H. Pandian later. In the first week of February 2017, senior party leader Panruti S. Ramachandran, who was then with her camp, clarified that Ms. Sasikala’s position was that of interim general secretary.
Before she began her four-year-long prison sentence in Bengaluru in the middle of that month, Ms. Sasikala made former MP and her nephew, T.T.V. Dhinakaran, the party’s deputy general secretary. In a few months however, the group led by Mr. Palaniswami turned against him and decided to join hands with the camp of Mr. Panneerselvam.
At the September 2017 general council meeting, when factions led by Mr. Palaniswami and former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam came together, the post of general secretary was abolished. An amendment was made to the party’s by-laws, by declaring Jayalailthaa as the “eternal general secretary.” Instead, two posts: coordinator and co-coordinator (joint coordinator), were created. Mr. Panneerselvam and Mr. Palaniswami were appointed to the posts respectively.
Five years later, after differences erupted between the two leaders, another amendment was made, repealing the rule that described Jayalalithaa as the “eternal general secretary” of the party. The post of general secretary was revived and till the election took place, Mr. Palaniswami had been made the interim general secretary. Then, Mr. Pannerselvam and a few of his supporters were expelled from the party.
The first to hold the post of general secretary was former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran, who founded the party in October 1972 following his exit from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). He occupied it till June 1978. When reports of infighting in the AIADMK cropped up eight years later, MGR took back the post in October 1986 and held it till his death in December 1987.
V.R. Nedunchezhian, who joined the AIADMK in September 1977, was initially made the officiating general secretary and subsequently, the full-fledged general secretary in January 1979. Nedunchezhian had to quit the post in June 1980 after he became Finance Minister. P.U. Shanmugam succeeded him. Consequent to becoming Local Administration Minister in March 1985, he resigned from the post.
S. Raghavanandam, who was Labour Minister in MGR’s Cabinet during 1977-85, became the next general secretary. He went on to hold it for nearly one and a half years. After MGR’s death, the party suffered a split. On January 1, 1988, Jayalalithaa, who was the then propaganda secretary, announced that she assumed the general secretaryship of the party, in response to, what was claimed, a request conveyed by 15 district secretaries of the party. For some time, this group was described as AIADMK (Jayalalithaa).
The other faction owing allegiance to MGR’s widow Janaki Ramachandran came to be called the AIADMK (Janaki). Raghavanandam, who was a senior deputy general secretary at the time of the split, became the general secretary in-charge of this faction. After the two factions suffered heavy reverses in the 1989 Assembly elections, they came together and became the unified AIADMK. Jayalalithaa held the post till her death.
