After MGR

Tamil Nadu politics has represented something of a unique pattern in terms of the relationship that has evolved between the parties ruling in the state and at the centre. Of all the states the Congress has been out of power the longest in Tamil Nadu since 1967. Yet this has seemed to matter the least, thanks to the arrangement worked out between it and the party in power in the state. This arrangement found its clearest expression in the last general election, in 1984, when in an explicit demarcation of interests between itself as a regional parity and the Con- gress(l) as a national party, the AIADMK lent its sup port to the Congress(I) to enable the latter party to win as many as 25 out of the 38 Lok Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu a number totally out of proportion to the party's political following in the state. On the other hand, this arrangement left the AIADMK free to rule Jamil Nadu without having to cope with the kind of undermining by the central government and sniping by the Congress(l) which have been the lot of non-Congress(I) governments in other states.