Former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president and Erode East MLA, EVKS Elangovan, passed away in a private hospital in Chennai after a brief illness on Saturday. He was 73 years old.
The Congress leader would have turned 74 on December 21. He was admitted to a private hospital in Chennai on Friday following illness.
Known for his fiery speeches and Swift repartees, Elangovan was elected as the MLA from the Erode East assembly segment after his son, Thirumahan EVeRa, passed away and the seat fell vacant in 2022. Elangovan is the grandnephew of Dravidian icon Periyar and the son of EVK Sampath, a tall Dravidian leader who was among the five people along with Karunanidhi to have sown the seeds of Dravidian politics in Tamil Nadu.
Elangovan held the post of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president twice, immediately after G.K. Moopanar-led faction split from the party and formed Tamil Maanila Congress. It was during 2000-2002 the Congress was highly marginalised in the state, as both Moopanar and P.Chidambaram with their own parties commanded popularity in Tamil Nadu. Again, he held the post of the party president from 2014 to 2016, when Congress was completely washed out in the Lok Sabha election in Tamil Nadu.
He was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984 from the Sathyamangalam constituency and then in 2004 from the Gobichettipalayam constituency, which is no more a Lok Sabha segment. He was made the union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas, and commerce and industry.
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Again in 2019, he contested as part of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led alliance from Theni constituency and lost to O. Panneerselvam's son Raveendranath Kumar. Elangaovan is a staunch critic of Jayalalithaa and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, even though his mother Sulochana Sampath was a senior leader with the AIADMK and was considered close to Jayalalithaa.
It may be recalled that he was one among the few Congress legislators who had resigned from the MLA post on January 28, 1988 when MGR's wife Janaki moved a vote of confidence in the state assembly. He refused to obey the whip to vote for Janaki Ramachandran.
He was also part of Actor Shivaji Ganesan's party Tamizhaga Munnetra Munnani (TMM) for a brief period when the actor floated his party in 1988.
