PUDUCHERRY: Former Puducherry Assembly speaker VMC Sivakumar (65) was murdered in broad day light at Niravi near Karaikal on Tuesday. When he had gone to review the construction of a marriage hall in Niravi, a gang hurled a bomb at him and murdered him.
Sivakumar, the son of Ganapathipillai and Pushpavalli Ammal entered in to politics in 1969 as an elected president of students’ federation when he was pursuing graduation in Economics at Tagore Government Arts College, Puducherry.
In 1977, he made his maiden debut into the State politics as DMK MLA candidate for Neravy Thirupattinam and he lost to V M C Varadhapillai who represented Janata Party. In 1980, he defeated V M C Varadhapillai who contested as an ADMK candidate and became MLA for the first time at Neravy Thirupattinam constituency.
Subsequently he became the minister of agriculture, animal husbandry, consumer affairs and fisheries department. He was the speaker of Puducherry Legislative Assembly from 1996 to 2001.
After extending his support to AINRC as a 16th MLA, he was awarded with the post of the chairman at Pondicherry Distilleries and later he was also given the position of chairman at Karaikal Development Council.
In October 2015, he called on Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, and acted as an unannounced supporter until he joined AIADMK in May 2016. He had contested in the 2016 Assembly election on an AIADMK ticket, however, he the lost the seat.