MADURAI/CHENNAI: What connects O Paneerselvam, MK Stalin, Thangam Thennarasu, SP Velumani and KT Rajendra Balaji?
Apart from the fact that these leaders belong to Tamil Nadu’s two main rival parties, one thing which is common in between them is that they all started their political careers from the grass root level in their respective parties and came up to the level of Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister or Ministers.
These leaders also played a key role in providing the necessary fuel to extend the parties’ political mileage by mobilising support at all possible levels.
For instance, M K Stalin, a key figure in today’s Dravidian politics entered political sphere at a very young age of 14, when he campaigned for DMK in the 1967 elections. Since being elected into the party’s general committee six years later, he has held several positions within the party and government, including first directly elected Chennai Corporation Mayor (1996) and MLA five times from Thousand Lights (1989, 1996, 2001 and 2006) and Kolathur (2011) constituencies and Deputy Chief Minister of the State from 2009 to 2011.
The two time Chief Minister O Pannerselvam aka OPS, started his political career as a party area secretary, he was elected as Chairman of Periakulam Municipality in 1996 and became an MLA in 2001. Out of the blue, he was selected as CM the same year when Jayalalithaa was barred from the post by the Supreme Court.
KT Rajendra Balaji from Virudunagar is a Class X drop out, who joined the AIADMK after being inspired by MGR’s films. He started as town secretary of Thiruthangal in 1991, became Vice Chairman of Thiruthangal municipality and was elected as party’s district secretary. He entered into the State assembly in 2011, representing Sivakasi constituency and is currently the Minister for Information and Special Program Implementation.
Thangam Thennarasu hailing from the same district but from the opposite campis an engineering graduate, son of former DMK MLA Thangapandian was brought into the political foray by Stalin’s brother MK Alagiri.
Avadi Nasar is another DMK candidate who joined the party at a very young age and was an aggressive campaigner against Congress CM Bakthavatchalam.
S P Velumani from Coimbatore, K C Palanisamy from Karur, R Kamaraj from Tiruvarur and S Regupathy from Pudukkottai are other leaders from both camps who are sons of the soil facing no major dissent within the party as their rise has been steady.
Rajendra Balaji is class X dropout
He started as town secretary of Thiruthangal in 1991, became Vice Chairman of Thiruthangal municipality and was elected as party’s district secretary.
With no dissent, some rose steadily SP Velumani of Kovai, K C Palanisamy from Karur, R Kamaraj from Tiruvarur and S Regupathy from Pudukkottai are some whose rise has been steady