CHENNAI: Veteran AIADMK leader and former Assembly Speaker P. Dhanapal on Thursday announced that he had quit the AIADMK long ago and complained that he had been ignored by the party.
Dhanapal revealed this when reporters asked for his views on the TVK government after he attended the swearing-in ceremony of the new Ministers, including his son, D Logesh Tamilselvan, who was elected from the Rasipuram Assembly constituency.
“I quit the AIADMK long ago. I am not in good health, so I am staying at home and resting. My son was sworn in as a Minister in the Council of Ministers led by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay. I happily witnessed the swearing-in,” Dhanapal told reporters.
When reporters asked about his son, Logesh Tamilselvan, becoming a Minister in the TVK Ministry, Dhanapal expressed his happiness.
“I have held many positions, and when my son reaches such a position, I am truly happy about it,” he said.
Asked about youth being given importance in the Ministry, Dhanapal said he was pleased to see it. “The future rests with the youth,” he added.
When questioned about the split in the AIADMK and the reasons, according to him, for the party’s current state, Dhanapal said, “I was not given importance and was ignored in many ways after the demise of former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.”
Responding to another question, Dhanapal said, “They (the AIADMK) have committed many mistakes. Now, they are reaping the consequences. They ignored everyone. Now, the people have ignored them.”
Asked about speculation that AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami had been acting unilaterally without consulting anyone, Dhanapal said, “I am one of the examples of that. During the time of party founders M.G. Ramachandran and J. Jayalalithaa, I worked hard to grow the party, travelling on a bicycle. Since I was not given importance, I quit the AIADMK with a heavy heart.”
P Dhanapal, who served as Deputy Speaker during the AIADMK regime between 2011 and 2016, was later promoted to the post of Speaker on October 10, 2012, following the resignation of then Speaker D. Jayakumar.
Dhanapal belongs to the Scheduled Castes (Arundathiyar community) and was the first person from the Arundathiyar community to serve as Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly. Earlier, in 1952, J Sivashanmugam Pillai, a member of the Scheduled Castes community, served as the Speaker of the State’s first Assembly.
Dhanapal was born on May 16, 1951, in Karuppur in Salem district. He holds a postgraduate degree in History from the University of Madras and is a senior functionary of the AIADMK.
Dhanapal was elected to the State Assembly five times in 1977, 1980, 1985, 2001 and 2011. He has held various positions in the party, including convenor of the AIADMK district students’ wing, district unit treasurer, secretary of the district MGR Mandram and organising secretary of the party.
He served as Minister for Cooperation, Food and Civil Supplies during the previous AIADMK regime (2001–06) for about one and a half years. He did not contest the recently concluded Assembly elections.