CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Minister for Agriculture R Doraikkannu passed away on Sunday after a brief struggle with COVID-19. He is survived by his wife Bhanumathi, four daughters, and two sons.
His mortal remains are likely to be taken to his native place Rajagiri.
He was admitted to hospital on October 13 while he was on his way to Salem to condole the death of Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s mother. A few days ago, he had tested positive for the coronavirus and was kept on life-support.
The 72-year-old Minister passed away at 11.15 PM, a medical bulletin from the hospital said.
Doraikkannu was born on March 28, 1948, at Rajagiri in Thanjavur district. He was elected from Papanasam in 2006, 2011, and 2016 Assembly elections. He was later appointed as the Agriculture Minister and Animal Husbandry in May 2016.
He received a BA degree from Raja Serfoji Government College and then after working in a cooperative society for a few years went on to join the AIADMK.
With the demise of Doraikkannu, the strength of the AIADMK in the State Assembly has come down from 124 to 123. Since there are only seven months left for the general elections to the Assembly, no by-election will be held for the Papanasam constituency. As of now, there are four vacancies in the State Assembly: Thiruvotriyur, Gudiyatham, and Chepauk-Thiruvallikkeni.
MLAs in the 15th Assembly of Tamil Nadu, 11 MLAs died since May 2016: SM Seenivel (AIADMK - Thirupparankundram), J Jayalalithaa (AIADMK - RK Nagar), AK Bose (AIADMK - Thirupparankundram), M Karunanidhi (DMK - Thiruvarur), R Kanagaraj (AIADMK - Sulur), K Radhamani (DMK - Vikravandi), KPP Samy (DMK - Thiruvotriyur) S Kathavarayan (DMK - Gudiyatham (SC) and J Anbazhagan (DMK-Chepauk-Thiruvallikkeni) and R Doraikkannu (Papanasam).