Political career
Radhakrishnan has been associated with the organizations like the RSS and the Jan Sangh from the age of 16. [12] [13]
He is a two-time member of the Lok Sabha. [10] He contested as a member of the BJP in the 1998 and 1999 general elections in the aftermath of the 1998 Coimbatore bombings. [14] He won by a margin of over 150,000 votes in the 1998 election and a margin of 55,000 in the 1999 elections. [15]
In 1999,he stated that voters in Coimbatore did not need convincing to vote for the BJP. [16]
In 2004,he stated that the BJP did not stab any party in the back or cause rifts in ties with other parties. [17] He was among state leaders who worked on forming alliances in 2004 after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ended its ties with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. [18] Radhakrishnan later worked with the state unit to forge ties with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam for the 2004 elections. [19] [12]
He was also part of a parliamentary delegation to the United Nations in 2004. He addressed the 58th session of the UN General Assembly during this visit,on 20 October 2003. He spoke about strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations. [20] [13]
He was the state president for BJP Tamil Nadu from 2004 till 2007. As the president,he took a rath yathra (chariot journey) for 93 days,advocating the linkage of Indian rivers,eradicating untouchability and campaigning against terrorism in India,among others. He covered all the constituencies of Tamil Nadu during this yatra. [21] [22]
In 2012,Radhakrishnan courted arrest in Mettupalayam for protesting inaction against culprits who had assaulted a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist. [23]
He was named the BJP candidate for Lok Sabha from Coimbatore Constituency in 2014,and without the alliance of the biggest parties of Tamil Nadu,the DMK and the AIADMK,he secured second place with over 3,89,000 votes,the highest among the Tamil Nadu BJP candidates,losing by the smallest margin among all candidates in Tamil Nadu. He was named the party's candidate once again for the 2019 election from Coimbatore. [24] [12]
He was a member of the first parliamentary delegation to Taiwan in 2014,representing the Government of India. [25]
In 2020,he was appointed the BJP Prabhari (In-charge) for Kerala. He held the position till 2022. [12] [13]
He was the chairman of the All India Coir Board,which comes under the Ministry of Micro,Small and Medium Enterprises,from 2016 to 2020. [26] [13] He was a member of the Parliamentary Committee for Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) from 1998 to 2004 and a member of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee for Finance. [13]
Until recently,he was the National Executive Member of the BJP. He is one of the most respected and senior-most leaders of BJP from South India,and is often called the "Modi of Tamil Nadu". [13] [27]
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