CHENNAI: The five-decade-long political career of EVKS Elangovan could be described in just two words, bold and outspoken, characteristics that seem to have stayed with him from his car racing days of the early 70s. He had never minced words when expressing his views, even after becoming the chief of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC).
Known for his verbal outbursts against former chief ministers M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa when they were in power, Elangovan was at the receiving end of the wrath of both parties in the past. During his tenure as TNCC president, he was often credited with reviving the party and keeping the Congress in the limelight.
Throughout his political career, he called a spade a spade without worrying about what would be the reactions to his remarks against his contemporary political leaders. Elangovan’s no-care-for-criticism attitude was perhaps a quality he had inherited from his grandfather Periyar EV Ramasamy.
A great fan of legendary actor Sivaji Ganesan, he stood with the actor’s political stands until he was alive. In his younger days, in 1984, he contested from Satyamangalam constituency as a Congress candidate on the recommendation of Sivaji Ganesan and won the election by securing double the votes of the DMK candidate. Elangovan was a great lover of motor racing and participated in motor car races in Sholavaram, Chennai in 1972 and 1973.
After the demise of former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran and in the aftermath of AIADMK splitting into two factions, the then AICC president Rajiv Gandhi said the Congress party would support only the united AIADMK and due to this, differences of opinions cropped up in the TNCC with Sivaji Ganesan urging the party high command to support the Janaki Ramachandran government. Since the Congress high command did not agree to this, the MLAs supporting Sivaji Ganesan, including Elangovan, stepped down.
When Sivaji Ganesan launched his own political party Thamizhaga Munnetra Munnani, Elangovan served as one of its general secretaries. Later, Elangovan contested from the Bhavanisagar constituency in the 1989 Assembly election but could secure only the fourth place. However, after his return to Congress, in 2004, he was elected to Lok Sabha from Gobichettipalayam constituency with a margin of over 2 lakh votes.
Elangovan had clashed with Karunanidhi from 2007 for a few years after he raised the issue of ‘power sharing’ in public meetings. Elangovan’s supporters were vociferously asked if the Congress could share power at the centre, why not the DMK in Tamil Nadu. It was no exaggeration to say Elangovan remained a thorn in the flesh of the then DMK president M Karunanidhi. At one point in time, he advised his partymen not to react to the outbursts of Elangovan for the sake of keeping the alliance with Congress intact.
In 2015, he made an unsavoury remark on the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the then Chief Minister J Jayalalitha and this warranted huge protests from the AIADMK cadre who burnt Elangovan in effigy across Tamil Nadu. His clarification did not work with the AIADMK cadre. The protests came to an end only when Jayalalithaa appealed to the party cadre. On another occasion, when Jayalalithaa remarked on the foreign origins of Sonia Gandhi, Elangovan sharply reacted to this, leading to a verbal clash between the AIADMK and Congress.