CHENNAI: RM Veerappan, a close associate of former Chief Minister and AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran, passed away on Tuesday at a private hospital, where he was being treated for age-related ailments. He was 97.
Veerappan was a former minister in the Cabinets headed by MGR and late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. He held different portfolios, including HR and CE and Education.
Born in Vallathirakottai in Pudukkottai district in September 1926, Veerappan discontinued his studies due to his attraction towards theatre and joined the drama troupe of the TKS Brothers. Later, he met Periyar EV Ramasamy in 1945 and became his assistant. During this period, Veerappan came in contact with DMK founder CN Annadurai, MGR and late Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. His ties with MGR lasted till the latter’s death in 1987.
Veerappan became a minister in the Cabinet headed by Jayalalithaa in her first tenure as Chief Minister in 1991. In 1995, at a function to celebrate the success of the Rajinikanth-starrer Baashha, a movie co-produced Veerappan, the actor charged that “bomb culture” had grown in Tamil Nadu.
Jayalalithaa was reportedly upset that Veerappan, who was on the dais at the function, did not react to Rajinikanth’s remarks. Soon after, she dropped Veerappan from the cabinet and later he was sidelined within the AIADMK.
Following this, Veerappan founded the MGR Kazhagam. Senior journalist Durai Karuna recalled Veerappan's role in the AIADMK's victory in the 1984 Assembly election when party founder MGR was undergoing treatment at Brooklyn Hospital in the US. Veerappan effectively countered the speculation about MGR's ill-health at the time by rolling out videotapes showing MGR talking to others at the hospital.
He had a deep interest in Tamil literature and served as the president of Kamban Kazhagam and and Azhwarkal Aaivu Maiyam. Chief Minister MK Stalin, in his condolence message, expressed shock at the leader's demise and said his death is an "irreparable loss to the film industry as well as politics”.