AIADMK MLA dies of heart attack

Ruling AIADMK MLA R Kanagaraj died of a massive heart attack at his residence here Thursday, party sources said. Kanagaraj (64), who represented Sulur Assembly constituency in the district, was reading a newspaper when he suddenly collapsed, they said.

A doctor who rushed to the MLA's house from the neighbourhood declared him dead, the sources added. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselam, both top AIADMK leaders, and DMK President MK Stalin condoled Kanagaraj's death.

Kanagaraj's demise brings down the strength of the ruling party to 113, excluding the Speaker, in the 234-member assembly which already has 21 vacancies. The vacancies included the 18 created by the disqualification of rebel AIADMK MLAs in 2017 for revolting against the chief minister.

They owe allegiance to sidelined AIADMK leader and AMMK founder TTV Dhinakaran. One of them has since joined the DMK. Two other vacancies were caused by the death of sitting MLAs, former DMK chief M Karunanidhi and AIADMK's A K Bose last year.

Hosur MLA and Minister M Balakrishna Reddy attracted disqualification after he was convicted in a two-decades old riots case recently. He later resigned as Minister. Byelections to 18 of the 21 vacant seats are scheduled on April 18 along with the Lok Sabha polls while three others were omitted in view of pendency of election petitions related to the constituencies in court.

The bypolls are crucial for the AIADMK which needs to win a sizeable number of them to keep intact its majority in the House. The DMK (98) and its allies together have 97 members. Kanagaraj is survived by his wife, son and a daughter.

Panneerselvam and Palaniswami, AIADMK Coordinator and Joint Coordinator respectively, paid floral tributes to the MLA at his residence in Sultanpet where the body has been kept to enable the public pay homage. Palanisamy said the sudden demise of Kanagaraj was a great loss to AIADMK besides the people of his constituency with whom he had maintained a healthy and close relationship.

Accompanied by Municipal Administration minister S P Velumani, Deputy speaker Pollachi V Jayaraman and a few other ministers and MLAs, the two top AIADMK leaders consoled the family members of Kanakaraj. Earlier, in a statement, Palaniswami and Panneerselvam expressed grief over Kanakaraj's death and recalled he was loyal to the party and late chief minister J Jayalalithaa and had served in various party positions.

Kanagaraj worked from the grass-root level for the last 30 years and rose to become a Panchayat president and was elected MLA in 2016, defeating Congress candidate V M Manoharan by over 36,000 votes. DMK leader Stalin, DMDK founder leader Vijayakanth and BJP leader and Coir Board chairman C P Radhakrishnan were among those who condoled the death of the MLA..