The party was founded in 1972 as "Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK)" by M. G. Ramachandran, a veteran Tamil film star and popular politician. It was set up as a breakaway faction of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led by M. Karunanidhi, then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, owing to differences between the two. Later, M.G.R prefixed the "All India (AI)" tag to the party's name. Since its inception, the relationship between the AIADMK and DMK has been marked by mutual contempt. M.G.R used his fan network to build the party cadre with claims his party recruited more than a million members in the first two months. C. N. Annadurai's ideologue and movie mogul R. M. Veerappan was the key architect in unifying the M.G.R fan clubs and further consolidating the party structure in the 70s. Other key leaders such as Nanjil K. Manoharan and S. D. Somasundaram played major roles in consolidation. The party's first victories were the Dindigul parliamentary by-election in 1973 and the Coimbatore West assembly bye-election a year later. On 2 April 1973, AIADMK emerged as the third largest political party in Tamil Nadu, represented by 11 MLAs in the assembly. By 31 January 1976, AIADMK emerged as the second largest political party in Tamil Nadu with 16 MLAs in the assembly. AIADMK grew close to the Congress Party by supporting the National Emergency between 1975 and 1977.