Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) (English: National Progressive Dravidian Federation) is a regional political party formed by Tamil film actor Vijayakanth in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, along the lines of the regional Dravidian parties, on 14 September 2005 at Madurai. The party head office is in Koyambedu, Chennai.
This party contested in all 234 seats in the state elections in May 2006 with Vijayakanth contesting in Vridhachalam. The party polled almost 30 lakh votes (a total of about a 10% share). All the candidates of the DMDK, with the sole exception of Vijayakanth, lost the elections in 2006. In by-elections to Madurai Central assembly constituency, DMDK secured around 17,000 votes, which was 2,000 votes less than All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). DMDK was also able to secure a large number of seats in Local Body elections. Vijaykanth and his party contested in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls as an independent party in all 39 constituencies in the state, winning no seats. The party won 29 seats in the 2011 assembly election and became the official opposition party with Vijayakanth as the Opposition Leader.
DMDK contested all 39 seats independently in Tamil Nadu in the 15th Lok Sabha election and lost all of them. The party, however, made strong inroads in the heartland of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK). The party polled 30.73 lakh votes of the total of 3.02 crore valid votes polled in the state representing roughly a vote share of 10.09%. This is higher than the 8.38% vote share polled by him during the 2006 assembly election. It polled more than one lakh votes in nine constituencies, more than 75,000 in 19 constituencies and more than 50,000 in 35 constituencies including Puducherry.
Besides giving live and current information the channel broadcasts news on sports, business and international affairs. It also offers a wide array of week end programmes. The channel is promoted by Chennai based New Gen Media Corporation. The company also publishes popular Tamil magazines- Puthiya Thalaimurai and Kalvi. The news center is based in Chennai city, supported by a sprawling network of bureaus all over Tamil Nadu. It has a northern hub in the capital Delhi.The channel is proud of its well trained journalists and employs cutting edge technology for news gathering and processing.
DMDK fought Lok Sabha Election through an alliance with BJP led NDA. MDMK, PMK, KMDK and IJK led Social Democratic Alliance are the other allies of NDA in Tamil Nadu. In the NDA alliance, this party is the one with highest number of seats which are 14 in number. Despite of big hype, the party lost all 14 seats to AIADMK candidates. But this is the first time in 52 years that DMK alliance was pushed to third place by the number of seats and this election had given the confidence to most parties that future of Tamil Nadu lies in coalition government.
Headquarters Koyambedu, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India