COIMBATORE: AIADMK MLA R Kanagaraj, representative of the Sulur assembly constituency in Coimbatore, died of cardiac arrest in his house on Thursday morning. He breathed his last while reading a newspaper around 7.30 am. The MLA had been 66 years old.
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, Ministers S P Velumani, Udumalai K Radhakrishnan, and Deputy Speaker Pollachi V Jayaraman visited his residence and paid respects.
Speaking to reporters, Palaniswami talked about the hard work Kanagaraj had put in for the party at the grassroots and managed to rise to the ranks. He had been loyal to the party during the MGR and Jayalalithaa period. He not only managed to win the hearts of party cadre but also the public, the chief minister noted and remarked that his loss would a significant one for the party.
From being a councillor of the Sultanpet panchayat in 1986, Kanagaraj had climbed up the ladder to be made Coimbatore district president of the party. In the 2016 assembly election, he contested from the Sulur constituency and won by a margin of 37,156 votes; while Kanagaraj secured 1,00,738 votes, Congress’ V M C Manoharan had only roped in 63,582.
Kanagaraj is survived by wife Rathinam, son Shanmugasundaram and daughter Bamavijaya. With his demise, the strength of AIADMK in the assembly comes down to 113, excluding Speaker P Dhanapal. Besides the single nominated member, DMK has 88 MLAs, Congress 8, IUML and AMMK have one each.
His death has pushed the present vacancies in the State to 22. By-election for 18 of these seats has been scheduled for April 18, along with the assembly elections. Bypolls for Ottapidaram, Aravakurichi and Tirupparankundram constituencies are on hold due to their sub-judice status.
‘Down-to-earth functionary’
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and leaders of parties condoled the death of Sulur AIADMK MLA R Kanagaraj.
Expressing deep grief over the MLA’s death earlier in the day, the CM recalled that Kanagaraj was an unassuming, down-to-earth functionary who always remained in touch with the people and devoted his life to the public cause. Kanagaraj had worked for the development of the Sulur constituency and his death would be an irreparable loss to the people of his constituency, he said.
Panneerselvam, in his message, recalled the services of Kanagaraj to the people and said he was a loyal soldier of the AIADMK.
Meanwhile, DMK president MK Stalin, PMK founder S Ramadoss and DMDK founder Vijayakanth also condoled the death of Kanagaraj and conveyed their condolences to his bereaved family members and the AIADMK cadre.