CHENNAI: BS Gnanadesikan (71), senior vice president of the Tamil Maanila Congress, passed away on Friday due to cardiac problems at a private hospital here. Gnanadesikan is survived by his wife G Thilakavathi and two sons. He was admitted to the hospital in Chennai on November 11 last after he felt chest pain. Later, he contracted coronavirus infection. Gnanadesikan was under treatment for more than two months.
Even as Gnanadesikan was under treatment, his mother Meenakshi Ammal passed away on November 26. When Gnanadesikan was expected to be discharged from the hospital in a few days, he suffered a cardiac arrest on Thursday and he was under intensive treatment. The mortal remains of Gnanadesikan will be cremated at Besant Nagar crematorium on Saturday.
Born on January 20, 1949 in Vathalagundu in Dindigul district, Gnanadesikan had his schooling in Nagercoil where his father BS Sivagurunathan was a district judge. An alumnus of Loyola College, Gnanadesikan obtained his law degree from Dr Ambedkar Law College, Chennai and was practising in the Madras High Court. Initially, he worked as a junior to NC Raghavachari, advocate of former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran.
He was a loyalist of late Congress leader GK Moopanar and later supported Moopanar's son GK Vasan. Gnanadesikan was elected to Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu twice in 2001 and 2007. He was a member of many parliamentary committees on various departments - defence, finance, labour, water resources, fertilisers and chemicals and home affairs. Besides, he had also served as a member of the Jawaharlal Institute of PostGraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry.
Gnanadesikan served as the TNCC president for two terms between 2009 and 2014. On October 30, 2014, he resigned as TNCC president following an argument with Mukul Wasnik, Congress in charge for Tamil Nadu. He also served as general secretary and spokesperson of the TMC and later became senior vice president of the party.
Expressing deep grief over the demise of his long-time colleague, Vasan said, "During his student days, he was attracted towards late leader K Kamaraj. Gnanadesikan's demise is an irreparable personal loss to me and to the TMC.”
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palnaiswami, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, DMK president MK Stalin, TNCC president KS Alagiri, CPI State secretary R Mutharasan, MDMK general secretary Vaiko, PMK founder S Ramadoss, AMMK general secretary TTV Dhinakaran were among those who have condoled the demise of Gnanadesikan.