formula and making Tamil an official language of the Indian Union. In 2004, Tamil film director and actor T. Rajendar who was earlier expelled from DMK launched the All India Latchiya Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ("All India Principled Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam" in English). Offshoots of AIADMK Soon after MGR's death in 1987, his wife V. N. Janaki Ramachandran took over as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. This appointment was opposed by former actress and politician J. Jayalalithaa. The resistance from Jayalalithaa eventually led to the dismissal of the AIADMK government, the shortest lived government in the history of Tamil Nadu, by the Central Government of India then led by Rajiv Gandhi. The antagonism built up and the AIADMK split into two fragments. The Election Commission of India refused to accept either of them as the successor of the original party and separate electoral symbols were allocated. The faction led by MGR's widow chose to use two doves, with a large dove holding leafy branch in its beak, as if feeding the smaller dove. Jayalalithaa's faction was represented by a crowing cock. Although both factions lost the 1989 state elections, Jayalalithaa's AIADMK won 27 seats when compared to just one won by Janaki's. Following the election defeat, Janaki retired from active politics and the two party factions rejoined into one party. Other breakaways in AIADMK were witnessed in 1990s, when R. M. Veerappan and S. Tirunavukkarasu, due to personal differences with Jayalalithaa, formed MGR Kazhagam (MGR's Organisation) and MGR ADMK (MGR's and Anna's DMK) respectively. Factions and reunification genealogy of contemporary Dravidian parties Dravidian parties in central government Although the DMK and the AIADMK started playing a minimal role in the decision-making process in the Central government in the late 1960s, their actual participation in coalition governments came only in 1979, when two AIADMK Members of Parliament, Sathiavani Muthu and A. Bala Pajanor, joined the short-lived Chaudhary Charan Singh Ministry, which followed the Morarji Desai-led Janata Party government (1977–79). The DMK's Murasoli Maran joined the V. P. Singh Ministry in 1989. The DMK shared power with the subsequent United Front governments led by H. D. Deve Gowda and I. K. Gujral. In the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ministry (1998–99), three parties from Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) were represented. In the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Ministry, headed by Vajpayee (1999–2004), the DMK, the MDMK and the PMK