PUDUCHERRY: Former Puducherry local administration minister A Elumalai died of COVID-19 at JIPMER on Wednesday. He was 55.
According to JIPMER sources, he was admitted with breathing difficulties last night and was found to be positive for COVID-19. He succumbed to the virus at around 2 p.m on Wednesday.
Rising from a very humble beginning, Elumalai first became an MLA when he won the Ossudu assembly constituency (SC) seat on a Puducherry Makkal Congress (PMC) ticket in 2001.
Elumalai along with party MLA K Lakshminarayanan became ministers in the Congress government led by N Rangasamy in November 2001. The party led by P Kannan gave unconditional support to the Congress government and subsequently merged with the Congress. Elumalai was also given the transport portfolio.
However, due to political trouble between the Congress and PMC leadership, both the PMC ministers resigned on January 28, 2004. He became part of Kannan’s new party Puducherry Munnetra Congress (PMC).
Elumalai once again won the Ossudu (SC) seat in 2006 as an independent after quitting the PMC. He extended support to the Congress government led by N Rangasamy. However, in the 2011 elections, he lost the seat to the N R Congress candidate P Karthikeyan.
He remained a Congress functionary till he passed away.