VELLORE: DMK MLA S Kathavarayan, representing Gudiyatham (SC) constituency in Tamil Nadu Assembly, dies of illness at a private hospital in Chennai today. He is 59.
The principal opposition party has lost its second sitting MLA in a couple of days, as Kathavarayan dies a day after former Fisheries Minister and Thiruvottiyur MLA KPP Samy passed away on Thursday.
Kathavarayan was hospitalised more than a month due to heart ailments. He underwent bypass surgery on 4 January was recovering, party sources said.
However, he died on Friday due to complications.
“He has been undergoing treatment for heart problems, and a bypass surgery was performed on 4 January,” says AP Nanthakumar, Vellore Central district secretary of DMK.
Kathavarayan was elected to the Assembly in the by-elections in Gudiyatham segment held in May last year. He secured 1,06,137 votes to defeat AIADMK candidate Kasba R Moorthy (78,296 ) by a margin of 27,841.
The bypoll was necessitated by the disqualification of Jayanthi Padmanabhan, who switched over to TTV Dhinakaran’s side from the official AIADMK after a split following the demise of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
Remaining a bachelor, Kathavarayan joined DMK in 1980 and went on to become the youth wing convener of Pernambut town in 1984 and held the same position in the Pernambut panchayat union from 1987, before being nominated as district representative of the party in 1996.
In 2013, he became joint secretary of DMK in Vellore Central district.
Kathavarayan was imprisoned in 1986 when DMK resorted to burning of copies of Constitution to protest against opening of Navodaya Schools, the party sources recalled.