Saturday, May 26, 2018

PMK leader ‘Kaduvetti’ Guru dies of lung infection

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 26.05.2018

PMK leader and Vanniyar Sangam chief J Gurunathan (referred to as Kaduvetti’ Guru by partymen), the firebrand speaker, known for his hate speeches, breathed his last at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai where he was undergoing treatment for lung infection. He was 58 and had several criminal cases pending against him, most of which were in connection with murders or for his hate speeches.

A two-time PMK MLA, having been elected from Andimadam in 2001 assembly election and from Jayankondam in the 2011 assembly election, Guru was the righthand man for party’s founder S Ramadoss, who gave a free-hand for Guru at party meetings to hit out at political opponents and against some within the party. He unsuccessfully contested the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Tiruvannamalai constituency, part of the Vanniyar belt in north Tamil Nadu.

Born on February 1, 1961, Guru belonged to Kaduvetti, a village in Ariyalur district. It was P T Elangovan, PMK’s MP from Dharmapuri (1999-2004), who introduced Guru into Vanniyar Sangam in the 80s. But, the latter’s strongman tactics brought him closer to Ramadoss, as Guru helped the Sangam establish its roots in the Ariyalur belt as well as neighbouring districts. His rise was meteoric, when he succeeded P T Arulmozhi, elder brother of Elangovan, as chief of Vanniyar Sangam in 2001-02.

He was a rabble-rouser and had no fears hitting out against powerful leaders like former chief ministers M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa, whose government jailed him under the National Security Act (NSA) in May, 2013. 




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