M. Gunasekaran (born 3 June 1962) is an Indian politician and has twice been elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu from the Manamadurai constituency.
Personal life
editGunasekaran was born in Nelmadur on 3 June 1962. He has a BA degree and is married with three children.[1]
Gunasekaran lists agriculture as his occupation. A study comparing sworn election affidavits for members of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly who had won their seats in the 2006 elections and were standing as candidates in those of 2011 revealed that Gunasekaran had recorded the biggest percentage increase in assets. The increase was 3396 per cent.[2]
In June 2014, Gunasekaran was hospitalised, with police saying his condition was "highly critical", after being attacked by several people while talking with a group of friends in Manamadurai. Police said that the attack happened after a heated discussion with one of the attackers regarding property rights.[3][4]
Politics
editGunasekaran was first elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly as an All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) candidate from Manamadurai constituency in the 2006 elections. The constituency is reserved for candidates from the Scheduled Castes.[5] He was particularly active in asking questions in the house, raising 16,057 queries during the 13th Assembly,[6] and was re-elected from the same constituency at the next election, in 2011.[7]
The elections of 2016 resulted in his constituency being won by the AIADMK's S. Mariappankennady,[8] who the party had determined should replace Gunasekaran.[9]
In January 2017, Gunasekaran announced that he could not work with the current AIADMK leadership, who he said wanted to encourage dynastic politics. He had been a strong supporter of Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK leader and Chief Minister who had recently died, and preferred to support Deepa Jayakumar, Jayalalithaa's niece, in her bid to head the party. He said that he had been a supporter of AIADMK since 1987 and that his decision to favour Jayakumar's aspirations was backed by many thousands of AIADMK people in Sivaganga district, in which the Manamadurai constituency is situated. He felt the new leadership was being unfair in its allocation of party positions in the district.[10]
References
edit- ^ "Thiru. M. Gunasekaran (AIADMK)". Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
- ^ "sitting MLAs double wealth in 5 years". Association for Democratic Reforms. 12 September 2011. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
- ^ "Manamadurai AIADMK MLA attacked". The Hindu. 7 June 2014. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
- ^ "AIADMK MLA critical after attack". The Times of India. 7 June 2014. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
- ^ 2006 Tamil Nadu Election Results, Election Commission of India
- ^ Ponnusamy, Mahalingam (13 April 2011). "Jayalalithaa attended assembly only 10 days". The Times of India. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
- ^ "List of MLAs from Tamil Nadu 2011" (PDF). Government of Tamil Nadu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2017.
- ^ "15th Assembly Members". Government of Tamil Nadu. Retrieved 2 May 2017.
- ^ "AIADMK wins 5 of 8 seats in Ramnad, Sivaganga". The Hindu. 20 May 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
- ^ "Veteran AIADMK leader Gunasekaran switches over to Deepa Peravai". The Times of India. 24 January 2017. Retrieved 3 May 2017.