Matinee idol and former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran (MGR) has to be the only person to have won his first and last elections to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from a hospital bed.
Rani Maindhan, in her biography on RM Veerappan – RMV Oru Thondar (A Cadre), recalls the 1967 assembly elections that brought the DMK to power for the first time.
MGR was selected for the competition from St. Thomas Mount (Parangimalai), one of the largest constituencies in Tamil Nadu and a Congress stronghold. Starting from Tiruvanmiyur, it spread to villages in OMR, Pallavaram municipality and parts of Tambaram.
“MGR had completed his first round of campaigning when he (MR Radha) was shot,” says R. Kannan, MGR’s biographer. He was hospitalized for two months. In February, MGR issued a statement from his hospital bed saying that the Congress rule had only brought tears to the people. Soon, posters of MGR with his neck bandaged and palms folded were put up everywhere in the state seeking votes, he says in his book ‘MGR: A Life’.
Meanwhile, an election rule has been introduced that requires a candidate to appear in person to file an affidavit. However, a request was made for election officials to visit MGR in hospital and surprisingly an exception was made.
As MGR could not travel for the campaign, RMV consulted the actor’s elder brother MG Chakkarapani. They convinced MGR to agree to a photo to be used for the campaign, according to RMV’s biography. The charismatic star reluctantly agreed. Despite the uproar and violence before the election, MGR won by a margin of 27,000 votes.
In the 1971 elections, MGR was the party treasurer and his influence grew. C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) and Kamaraj came together in a grand alliance. Thespian Sivaji Ganesan was promoted as their star fighter. By this time, differences had begun to creep in between MGR and the then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi. MGR was not initially slated to campaign due to a clash of egos. RMV mediated and then MGR undertook a 15-day stormy campaign starting from Kanniyakumari and DMK raced home with 180 seats.
After launching ADMK (later renamed AIADMK) in 1972, MGR began to attract larger crowds. In Coimbatore, people broke barricades and attacked a plane that landed on the runway.
Cut-out campaign
In 1977, MGR adopted a new method of campaigning by sending his life-size cutouts in jeeps to remote villages in his rural constituency Aruppukottai in Ramanathapuram district.
Huge crowds sometimes waited hours late into the night to catch a glimpse of their hero’s cutout. The AIADMK chief, who is pressed for time, opted for this method as he felt he could not cover the entire vast constituency even once. The constituency consisted of 256 villages, some of which were not accessible by any mode of transport other than on foot.
According to a report in The Hindu, as the jeeps carrying the cutouts toured the villages, many people, including women, performed ‘arti’ and broke coconuts. The gramophone in the jeep played specially composed songs praising MGR as sung by popular playback singers, followed by his recorded message promising clean government and other progressive measures.
Pro-poor
In 1980, MGR began a tour of his Madurai West constituency with the blessings of the Bishop of Madurai. In Tirumangalam, he warned voters against the “hospitality” of opponents who were able to administer “poisoned narcotics”.
In Kallipalti, he assured farmers that if his party returned to power, he would see that the debts of poor farmers were written off and repaid to the Reserve Bank by the state government without seeking help from the Centre, re-enforcing his “savior of the poor” image.
In 1984, MGR was hospitalized, first at the Apollo Hospital in Chennai and then airlifted to the Brooklyn State Hospital in New York. Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Parliament and Assembly elections were announced in December. MGR, who could neither speak nor sign, filed his nomination for the Andipatti constituency in the presence of the Consul General of India in New York.
Video campaign
After surgery, MGR’s recovery was quick. His mind was agile and politically aware, says Mr. Kannan in his biography. From his hospital bed, he carefully followed the events at home. His routine was to thoroughly read the newspaper and surf the television. Meanwhile, at home, the opposition claimed that MGR was dead and kept in a refrigerator, and the public was buying the argument, he notes.
According to RMV’s biography, one day he called a press conference at the Madras Secretariat and released pictures of MGR showing the two-leaf symbol, his wife Janaki by his side. The press had a field day. However, the opposition countered that they were all shot at Apollo Hospital. With days before the vote, RMV came up with another great idea. Palani G. Periasamy, who was with MGR and his wife Janaki Ramachandran, shot a video and forwarded it. A technical fault has occurred. RMV got AVM Saravanan, his friend and film producer, to help him. MS Guhan, son of Saravanan, flew to Singapore to convert the tape into a playable format.
Along with Valampuri John’s narration, the video was released in over 100 theaters and screened in Tamil Nadu, according to RMV’s biography. The AIADMK won easily and MGR became the Chief Minister again.
“MGR was a naturally charismatic man. He connected with people easily. In times of natural calamities and wars, he was the first or biggest contributor to the cause. He had too good an image. People thought he was one of the Gods,” says Mr. Kannan.
Published – 29 March 2026 19:39 IST
