Tamil Nadu faced 16 Assembly elections since the first election in 1951-52, but only some elections can be called defining moments. The 1977 Assembly election was one such moment when the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), founded by actor-turned-politician M. G. Ramachandran (MGR), became one of the two principal parties in the State.
Though the 2024 Lok Sabha election results point to the AIADMK’s continuing decline, it has retained the status of number two party in terms of vote share, though it did not win a single seat.
End of Emergency
In fact, 1977 was of great historical significance to people of the country, especially Tamil Nadu. In mid-January, the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, announced that the country, which had been under Emergency for over 18 months with a host of Opposition leaders and her critics being jailed, would go to the polls in a few months. She also announced the release of most of the jailed leaders.
In Tamil Nadu, the DMK was waiting to bounce back after its Ministry, headed by M. Karunanidhi, was dismissed in January 1976. The action followed a report sent by Governor K.K. Shah that the government had, “by a series of acts of maladministration, corruption, and misuse of power for achieving partisan ends, set at nought all canons of justice and equity”.
Heat from Sarkaria report
Facing the heat from the row over the interim report of the Sarkaria Commission, which was constituted in February 1976, the DMK wasted no time in aligning itself with the faction of the Congress (Organisation), led by P. Ramachandran (as another faction belonging to G.K. Moopanar merged itself with the Congress of Indira Gandhi in February 1976), and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The AIADMK, which had been warming to the Congress, struck a deal with the national party and the Communist Party of India (CPI). In the Lok Sabha election held in March, the AIADMK-Congress-CPI combine bagged 34 seats, with the remaining five going to the DMK-Congress (O)-CPI(M) front. (Three seats went to the Congress (O) and the two to the DMK).
At the national level, the Janata Party, an amalgam of the Congress (O), the Bharatiya Lok Dal, Socialists, and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, captured power, with Morarji Desai as the Prime Minister. Indira Gandhi herself lost in Rae Bareli and the Congress was voted out after being in power at the Centre for 30 years on end.
As the State was under President’s Rule for more than a year, everyone knew that the Assembly election was round the corner. It was widely thought that the political formations, worked out for the Lok Sabha election, would continue. But Tamil Nadu politics would provide not only surprises but also “shocks”.
Within days of Morarji Desai becoming the Prime Minister, MGR visited New Delhi in late March ostensibly to call on Indira Gandhi, with whom he had campaigned hard in Tamil Nadu some weeks earlier. But he also met the Prime Minister, triggering talk on the fate of the AIADMK-Congress alliance. On his return, the AIADMK chief told reporters that it would all be known in “due course”, reported The Hindu on April 3, 1977. There was a view in the AIADMK that the Congress and the CPI favoured a coalition government in the State.
Janata Party’s decision
As the churning began in the coalition stitched by the AIADMK for the Lok Sabha election, a similar development started in the rival formation. Janata Party leaders decided not to continue the ties with the DMK, while the CPI(M), which had viewed the Dravidian major as a force that started “fading away”, tried to have a tie-up with the Janata Party.
Eventually, the AIADMK roped in the CPI(M) and allotted it 20 seats. Its other allies included the Indian Union Muslim League (10 seats) and the Toilers Progressive Party (3 seats), according to a report of The Hindu on May 17, 1977.
Former no. 2 in the DMK Cabinet, V.R. Nedunchezhiyan, who came out of the party after the debacle in the Lok Sabha election, formed the Makkal DMK (MDMK) and extended support to MGR. While the DMK and the Janata Party contested in almost all the 234 constituencies, the Congress formed an alliance with the CPI and the Republican Party of India (Gavai), allotting them 32 and three seats respectively.
A multi-cornered contest
For the first time since Independence, the State faced a genuine multi-cornered contest and the election was held under the President’s Rule. Electors had no confusion who was the face of the AIADMK and the DMK for the post of Chief Minister: MGR and Karunanidhi. But, in the Congress and the Janata Party, the residual faction of the Congress (O), there was no one who could match the stature of K. Kamaraj, though G.K. Moopanar and P. Ramachandran called themselves the “custodians of the Congress-Kamaraj legacy”. This apart, the two national parties did not have the advantage of the Dravidian parties in organisational infrastructure.
Corruption and threat to culture
MGR harped on the theme of corruption and targetted Karunanidhi. The Sarkaria Commission came in handy for him. As for the DMK chief, his party would oppose tooth and nail any threat to Tamil culture and heritage.
The Janata Party did its best by getting Morarji Desai to campaign in different parts of the State, while the Congress leadership adopted a hands-off approach, as Indira Gandhi was no longer in power and Moopanar emerged as the key leader, without contesting in the election.
The results were broadly on expected lines. The AIADMK romped home, bagging 130 seats with a vote share of 30.37%. Its ally, CPI(M), secured 12 seats with 2.79%, and the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) bagged one seat. The DMK netted 48 (including 13 in Chennai), with 24.89%. The Congress and its partner, CPI, got 27 seats and five seats respectively, with a combined vote share of 20.42%. The Janata Party captured 10 seats, with a vote share of 16.66%. There was one Independent.
Karunanidhi wrote in Nenjukku Needhi (Volume 3) that had the allies of his party for the Lok Sabha election stayed with him for the Assembly election too, the DMK-led front would have bagged over 150 seats, going by the vote share.
Even though the State faced another multi-cornered contest in the 1989 Assembly election, the performance of the top four parties was more “balanced” in 1977 than 12 years later.
Published - July 02, 2024 10:13 pm IST
