Tamil Nadu Congress Committee working president and Kanyakumari MP H. Vasantha Kumar succumbed to the coronavirus disease on Friday. The 70-year-old leader was undergoing treatment at Apollo Hospital in Chennai for the past 15 days. Kumar is the first sitting Lok Sabha MP to succumb to COVID-19.
Kumar was admitted to the Apollo hospitals on August 10 after he showed signs of coronavirus infection. He was put on ventilator support a few days ago after his condition started deteriorating.
Apollo hospitals in its press statement said, “Vasantha Kumar was admitted to Apollo Hospitals on August 10th with covid infection. He was treated in critical care unit by a team of doctors for severe covid pneumonia. Despite all active medical measures, his condition deteriorated gradually due to covid complications and he passed away today.”
Kumar is survived by his wife Tamil Selvi and son Vijay Vasanth who is an actor. Selvi has also tested positive for the virus and is under treatment.
Kumar’s is a real rag to riches story. He hails from Agastheeswaram in Kanyakumari district.
Born on April 14, 1950, Kumar is looked at as a successful businessman and a self-made entrepreneur in Tamil Nadu. After completing his primary education at a Panchayat Board school in Kanyakumari, Kumar did his bachelors in Tamil literature from Madurai. He later completed his masters degree.
In 1971, Kumar came all the way to Chennai to assist his brother Kumari Ananthan, a Congress functionary during the elections. He then joined VGP, one of the retail stores selling consumer goods, as a salesman for a meagre monthly salary of Rs 70. He used to cycle miles to sell radio, fan and other consumer goods on monthly instalment. His hard work earned him a promotion as the branch manager, fetching a salary of Rs 300 per month. Soon he was asked to move to Mumbai. But, unwilling to leave Tamil Nadu, Kumar quit his job and launched his own business.
Capital investment was a challenge and Kumar had just Rs 22 in hand. Moved by his commitment and hard work, one of his customers of VGP was willing to help him. He sold his shop at South Usman road in T Nagar for Rs 8,000 on a condition that Kumar should repay the dues within six months. Thus came his ‘Vasanth and Co’ which grew into a reputed chain of retail consumer goods store in Tamil Nadu over the years. He used to sell netted folding chairs at a cost of Rs 25 each, door to door on his cycle. This helped him rope in loyal customers to his store at South Usman road.
In 1985, when Asian Games came to India, he came up with the novel monthly instalment scheme. It was when the colour television sets were introduced and Asian games came in handy for him. He approached a finance company to help run the EMI scheme for his customers. Later, following the footsteps of his brother Kumari Ananthan, he too joined the Congress. In 2006 and 2016 he was elected to the state assembly from Nanguneri constituency and in 2019 he won the Lok Sabha polls from Kanyakumari constituency.
Kumar was the face of the Congress in Kanyakumari and Nagercoil.