^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Party (India)

[All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Party Flag]

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 7 January 2017

Introduction
Official flag
Unofficial variants

See also:

Introduction

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (All India Anna Dravidian Progress Party; AIADMK) was founded in 1972 after a split in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Its founder was M. G. Ramachandran, popularly known as MGR, a famous actor turned politician and a pre-1972 high official of the DMK. He named his new party by expanding the name of his original one with the word Anna (Tamil for "elder brother"), which was the nickname of C.N. Annadurai, the DMK founder, thus suggesting that he and those who joined him are Anna's only true followers; he added the words "All India" later. MGR has led the party until his death in 1987, serving twice as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, to be succeeded in both offices by his widow Janaki Ramachandran, also a former actress, but party quickly lost much of its influence after the split in which many members followed J. Jayalalithaa, another former actress, who had frequently co-starred with MGR and was his assistant in the party. The two factions operated as separate parties until 1987, when they united under the leadership of Jayalalithaa, who served five times as the Chief Minister until her death in 2016, also expanding the party beyond the borders of Tamil Nadu state and Puducherry territory.

AIADMK now also operates in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka, having had elected representation in the last of these, as well as among the Tamil diaspora in other parts of India and abroad. Jayalithaa was succeeded by Sasikala Natarajan as the party leader (the third woman in succession), and by O. Panneerselvam as the Chief Minister (he already served twice when Jayalalithaa was removed from office due to legal investigations). The long-established trend of Tamil actors and other filmmakers entering the politics was largely boosted, if not started, by the AIADMK and its rivalry with the DMK is one of main features of the politics in Tamil Nadu.

Source: All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_India_Anna_Dravida_Munnetra_Kazhagam
Tomislav Todorovic, 7 January 2017

Official flag

The flag of AIADMK is described in the Article 4 of the party Constitution ("Rules and Regulations", as officially called) as a black-red horizontal bicolor with the white bust of Annadurai in center, depicted as pointing with his forefinger towards the fly; the ratio is 2:3. While the shade of red is not specified, R+ is typically used.

Unofficial variants

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 7 January 2017

Very frequently, the flag is amended with a white disc carrying the party election symbol "two leaves" within a red ring on a white disc, positioned so that the forefinger of Annadurai points to it; the symbol, which is simply drawn in black on white field for other
purposes, is painted green on the flag. The ring is sometimes black instead of red, but that seems to be used very rarely. This flag may be used either alone or together with the official one.

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 7 January 2017

The flag with election symbol also has a vertical variant, ratio 2:1 or close, which is not used frequently, but still enough to have been recorded more than once.

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 8 January 2017

Along with its official flag and its unofficial modifications, AIADMK also uses black-white-red horizontal tricolor flags. This is the design also used for the shawls worn by the party activists and supporters, according to a widespread custom in India. Whether the flags were modeled after the shawls, or vice versa, the design was certainly introduced in order to avoid the confusion with the symbols used by the main rival, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. On the white field, a number of charges can be added, such as the election symbol or faces of MGR or Jayalalithaa; the number and disposition of these are not fixed, and neither is the color (black, green, blue and red have all been used, as well as combinations of these), so it is clear that none of these variants have official status. Still it is clear that all of the tricolor flags, plain of defaced, are too numerous to be used without the party consent. Regarding the ratio of these flags, it may vary from 1:1 to 1:2, but 2:3 is the most used.

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 8 January 2017

A variant of tricolor flag worth being mentioned separately was seen in Pallavaram, Tamil Nadu, on 2009-05-09. There, the white field was defaced with white bust of Annadurai, outlined black and depicted in the same stance as in the official party flag.
Tomislav Todorovic, 8 January 2017

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 8 January 2017

On tricolor flags of AIADMK, the white stripe may be narrower than the other two. Such a flag, with ratio 1:1 or close, was photographed in Krishnagiri on 2009-04-06.

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 8 January 2017

The three colors may also be arranged vertically. Such flags, with ratio 2:3 or close and a very narrow white stripe, were photographed in South Chennai on 2009-05-10. The stripe width seemed to vary somewhat and it might have been a bit off-centre (closer to the hoist) on some of the flags, although it was not easy to tell.

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 8 January 2017

Finally, the only vertical tricolor flag of AIADMK was photographed in Villupuram on 2009-04-06. There, the colors were arranged vertically, white stripe was much narrower than the other two, and the ratio was about 5:4, although it was not easy to tell.
Tomislav Todorovic, 8 January 2017

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 12 April 2018

Another vertical tricolor flag of the party was photographed in Coimbatore on 2017-11-01. A row of such flags was hoisted at the bottom of Gandhipuram flyover. On them, three colors were arranged horizontally, each occupying one-third of the flag width. The white field was defaced with white bust of Annadurai, outlined black and stylized in the same way as in the official party flag. The ratio was 3:1 or very close.

Source: The Hindu newspaper website - News entry on 2017-11-02: http://www.thehindu.com
Tomislav Todorovic, 12 April 2018