Former Tamil Nadu Congress chief EVKS Elangovan dies

Chennai: Well known Congress leader and sitting MLA of Erode East constituency, E V K S Elangovan passed away on Saturday at a private hospital in Chennai, where he was admitted on November 13 with breathlessness. He was 75 and is survived by his wife Varalakshmi and son Sanjay Sampath.

Hailing from a political family, Elangovan’s mother was Sulochana Sampath, a Minister in the AIADMK government, and his father was E V K Sampath, one of the founding members of the DMK. His grandfather E V Krishasamy was the elder brother of Periyar E V Ramasamy.

Elangovan started his political career in the Congress party and was an acolyte of Shivaji Ganesan. When Ganesan broke away from the Congress, he too went with him but returned to the Congress to become the president of the TNCC twice in 2000 to 2002 and in 2014-16. He represented Gobichettipalayam in Parliament in 2004 and was also Minister for State for Textiles in the Manmohan Singh government.

The first election that he won was in 1984 to become the Sathyamangalam MLA and the last one was from the Erode East Assembly constituency, where he contested a by-election which was caused by the sudden passing away of his son, Thirumagan Evera.

As an active politician, regularly int he was a critic of AIADMK chief J Jayalaithaa. When Jayalalithaa had said that the Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s earlier name was Antonia Maino, it was Elangovan who retorted by saying the Jayalalalithaa’s real name for Komalavalli, which the former chief minister had denied.

Supporters and colleagues of Elangovan rushed to pay homage to his mortal remains on hearing about his passing and among the top leaders who personally consoled the grieving family members were Chief Minister M K Stalin, Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin and Dravidar Kazhagam president K Veeramani.

Tributes poured in from across the political spectrum. Governor R N Ravi described him as a ‘devoted member of the legislative Assembly from Erode (East) while Stalin said Elangovan’s passing was a great loss to Tamil Nadu politics.

Others who put out condolence messages were Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, who described him as a ‘fearless and principled leader,’Congress president Mallkarjuna Kharge, Union Minister of State L Murugan, leader of the opposition in the State Assembly Edappadi K Palaniswami and TNCC president K Selvaperunthagai.

All top political leaders of Tamil Nadu conveyed their condolences and founder president of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam Vijay said that Elangovan hailed from a great political tradition.

In his last speech on the floor of the State Assembly, he demanded the setting up of a library in Erode and also the shifting of the Salem airport to another location between Salem and Erode, besides hanking the Chief Minister for announcing the setting up of a statue of late Indira Gandhi.