Loyalty to the party and its supremo rewarded this veteran finally. After more than four decades of political life and serving various positions in the party at all levels, the man from Dindigul was finally awarded with a ministerial position.
Sreenivasan’s late ascent is related to the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s attempt to bring back the old coterie. Sreenivasan who joined the party in 1972 as a lower-level cadre soon rose through the ranks by virtue of his active field work. This coincided with the 1973 assembly elections in which AIADMK swept the polls.
A decade and a half after joining the party, Srinivasan became the district secretary in 1987. Two years later, he was offered a chance to contest on behalf of the party in the ninth Lok Sabha elections.
Caught in a fix after the demise of party founder MG Ramachandran during when party split into two, Sreenivasan sided with the Jayalalithaa camp, which eventually turned prevalent. This earned him a free run as the face of the party in Dindigul with the party leadership nominating him as their MP candidate for the next four terms of which he won thrice. Serving as the Minister of Forests, this veteran is said to be among the top three in the party ranks.