Deputy Speaker P Dhanapal, set to be the next Speaker of the State Assembly, belongs to Scheduled Caste (Arundathiyar community) and is the first to assume the office of the Speaker from the community in Tamil Nadu. Way back in 1952, J Sivashanmugam Pillai belonging to the SC community, was the Speaker of the first Assembly of the State.
Dhanapal was born on May 16, 1951, in Karuppur in Salem district. He is a post-graduate degree holder in History from the Madras University and a senior functionary of the AIADMK party.
He has been elected to the State Assembly for five terms - 1977, 1980, 1985, 2001 and 2011.
He has served in various positions in the party - convenor, AIADMK district students’ wing, treasurer of district unit, secretary of the district MGR Mandram and organising secretary of the party. He was the Minister for Cooperation, Food and Civil Supplies during the previous AIADMK regime (2001-06), for about one and half years. Since the post of Deputy Speaker will fall vacant after the election of Dhanapal as the Speaker, the election for the post is likely to be held soon.