Panruti S. Ramachandran

Panruti S. Ramachandran Biography

Panruti Ramachandran is a veteran politician from Tamil Nadu. He has been teamed up with actor Vijayakanth of the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) in 2005 and was its Chairman position. He retired from active position on 10th December 2013 resigning his MLA position and deputy leader of opposition position too citing due to health related problems. He has retired from active politics; the third time he has announced such a withdrawal from politics. He has been a Minister in the Cabinet of former Chief Minister M G Ramachandran and was MGR’s right hand in some political matters when he was active in politics. He was the witness to the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka agreement on July 29, 1987.

Ramachandran was born in Panruti, Puliyur on December 21, 1937.He received an engineering B.E. (Hons.) degree from Annamalai University. Later he worked in Tamil Nadu state electricity board. But in 1966 he resigned job to join active politics. In 1967, he was elected from the Panruti constituency on the DMK ticket. In the Karunanidhi cabinet he became transport minister for the period, 1971-1976. But he later quit the party to join MGR’s AIADMK party and served as the minister for electricity in MGR's cabinet. As he was fluent in English, he got recognition from the party and he served as the right hand of MGR in the Eelam Tamils issue. But after his death, Panruti lost clout in the party. 

He later joined Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) of S. Ramadoss; again witnessed another change when he joined DMDK in 2005. Very soon he became the most valuable member of the party and reached its chairman position. He was solely responsible for scuttling a merger between the DMK and AIADMK during 2011 assembly elections.

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Updated: April 01, 2014