THANJAVUR: AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Monday announced an assistance of Rs 55 lakh and educational support for the daughter of party functionary K A S Mahendran, who allegedly died by suicide near Thiruppanandal, purportedly distressed over issues within the party.
Mahendran (37), AIADMK traders’ wing east district joint secretary, allegedly took the extreme step after uploading a video message on Facebook on Sunday night.
In the video, he was seen saying cadre like him are deeply hurt by the ongoing problems within the AIADMK and appealing to party leaders and workers to remain united and bring the party back to power under Palaniswami’s leadership. Police sent the body for postmortem and began an investigation.
Visiting Mahendran’s residence on Monday, Palaniswami paid floral tributes to the functionary and consoled the grieving family members.
Talking to reporters later, Palaniswami said the death is “shocking” and an “irreparable loss” to the party. He announced that AIADMK would bear the entire educational expense of Mahendran’s one-year-old daughter until she completes her studies.
He also announced Rs 30 lakh from the party headquarters and Rs 25 lakh from the AIADMK’s Thanjavur east district unit as financial aid to the kin.
Palaniswami urged party cadre not to resort to such extreme steps, saying the incident has caused deep pain and shock among party workers and leaders.
Expressing his condolences, former minister R B Udhayakumar said Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay should not attempt to entice AIADMK members by employing henchmen.
(If having suicidal thoughts, you can call the Tamil Nadu government’s health helpline at 104 or the Sneha suicide prevention helpline at 044-24640050/24640060)