Kanimozhi

Last updated

Athiban Bose
​
​
(m. 1989;div. 1997)​
[1]
G. Aravindan
​
(m. 1997)​
Kanimozhi Karunanidhi
Kanimozhi Karunanidhi 01.jpg
Kanimozhi in 2020
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
Assumed office
18 June 2019
Preceded by S. G. Indira
Succeeded by P. Wilson
Constituency Tamil Nadu
RelationsSee Karunanidhi family
ChildrenAditya Aravindan (Son)
Parent(s)Father: M. Karunanidhi
Mother: Rajathi Ammal
Residences
Education Master of Economics
Alma mater Ethiraj College for Women
Profession
  • Politician
  • Poet
  • Journalist
Signature Kanimozhi Signature.svg

Kanimozhi Karumandranidhi (born 5 January 1968) is an Indian politician, poet and journalist. She is a Member of Parliament, representing Thoothukkudi constituency in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of India's Parliament). She was also a former MP who represented Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of India's Parliament). [2] Kanimozhi is the daughter of the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi and his third wife Rajathi Ammal.

Contents

Kanimozhi belongs to the Indian political party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), where she functions as the deputy general secretary. Her half-brothers M. K. Alagiri and M. K. Stalin are the former Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers of the Republic of India and the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu respectively.

Early life

Before her entry into politics, Kanimozhi was involved in journalism, such as sub editor for The Hindu , editor in charge of Kungumam (a Tamil weekly magazine) and a features editor for a Singapore based Tamil newspaper called Tamil Murasu . [3]

Social works

Interests

Kanimozhi has been known to support pan-Tamil issues. [4] [5] She takes part in organising women empowerment programs [6] and is interested in the welfare of differently abled people and transgender people. In 2005, with Karthi Chidambaram, she founded a portal supporting free speech. [7]

Chennai Sangamam

In 2007, Kanimozhi conceived the idea of the Chennai Sangamam, an annual open Tamil cultural festival, usually held during the Pongal season.[ citation needed ]

Job fairs

She spearheads [8] DMK efforts to organise job fairs, under the banner 'Kalaignar 85' across rural Tamil Nadu to facilitate employment opportunities for young people in smaller cities, towns and villages. [3] She plans to conduct similar fairs all over Tamil Nadu. [9]

Literary works

Her literary works were translated into English, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada.

Silappathikaram

Kanimozhi has worked on a production titled Silappadikaram, A woman of Substance based on a Tamil epic of the same name with Bombay Jayashri. [11]

Personal life

Kanimozhi was a student of Presentation Convent, Church Park in Chennai and later did her master's degree in economics in Ethiraj College for Women from the Madras University. [3] She has been married twice; firstly in 1989 to Athiban Bose, a businessman from Sivakasi (since divorced), and then to G. Aravindan, a Singapore-based Tamil writer, in 1997. She has a son named Aditya Aravindan. [12]

Political career

As a Rajya Sabha MP

In May 2007, the DMK nominated Kanimozhi as one of the party's candidates for the Rajya Sabha. [13] She became a Rajya Sabha member for the second time in 2013. Kanimozhi was the chief whip of the DMK in the house and was the voice of the state of Tamil Nadu in the Upper house.[ citation needed ]

As a Lok Sabha MP

She was elected from Thoothukkudi as the first female MP of that constituency for the 17th Lok Sabha, which was held in the year 2019, and was elected as the DMK's deputy leader of the Lok Sabha. As of September 2019 and September 2022, Kanimozhi works as the chairperson of the Parliament Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers [14] and Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, respectively.

As a trade union leader

She is the president of The Hindu National Press employees union. She is the first woman to be elected to that post. [15]

Women's Wing Secretary of the DMK

She was the women's wing secretary of the DMK party and encourages women to enter politics. She has organised training camps for the district-level office-bearers of the women's wing. She also organised a rally in Delhi, demanding that the women's reservation bill be passed by the parliament. [16]

Deputy General Secretary of the DMK

On 9 October 2022, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu and the DMK president M. K. Stalin, announced and appointed Kanimozhi as the deputy general secretary of the DMK party in the presence of the party's general secretary Duraimurugan at the general council meeting held in Chennai.

Elections contested and positions held

Kanimozhi has been elected as M.P. of Lok Sabha from Thoothukkudi constituency. This was her first direct electoral performance. She resigned her Rajya Sabha MP post on 29 May 2019 after being elected to 17th Lok Sabha. [17]

Lok Sabha elections

ElectionsConstituencyPartyResultVote percentageOpposition candidateOpposition partyOpposition vote percentage
2019 Indian general election Thoothukkudi DMK Won56.77 Tamilisai Soundararajan BJP 21.77
2024 Indian general election Thoothukkudi DMK TBDR. Sivasamy Velumani AIADMK TBD

Posts in Parliament of India

YearConstituencyPositionFromTo
2007 Tamil Nadu Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha 25 July 200729 May 2019
2019 Thoothukkudi Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha 18 June 2019Incumbent

2G spectrum scam

As per the chargesheet filed by CBI, Kanimozhi has 20% stake in her family owned Kalaignar TV, her step-mother Dayalu Ammal owns 60% stake in the same channel.[ citation needed ] CBI alleged that Kanimozhi was an "active brain" behind the channel's operations and she worked along with former telecom minister A. Raja to get DB Realty promoter Shahid Balwa to circuitously route 2 billion (US$36.2 million) to Kalaignar TV. According to CBI, Kanimozhi was in regular touch with A. Raja regarding launching of Kalaignar TV channel and its other pending works. A. Kanimozhi had spent 190 days in Tihar Jail in 2011 after the CBI named her an "active brain" behind the functioning and setting up of Kalaignar TV. [18] Raja was further pursuing the cause of Kalaignar TV not only for getting registration of the company from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting but also for getting it in the DTH operator TATA Sky's bouquet. She was also summoned by the Income Tax Department, Chennai for alleged tax evasion charges.[ citation needed ]

On 3 July 2012, briefing the joint parliamentary committee probing the scam, ED claimed that it has enough evidence to convict DMK chief Karunanidhi's wife and daughter Kanimozhi.[ citation needed ]

Kanimozhi has defended herself by arguing that she is only a 20% shareholder in the company, who has no involvement in the financial aspects or the liability of a director. [19]

During the course of the trial, Kanimozhi's name was cleared by at least one witness who deposed that she had no involvement in the day-to-day affairs of Kalaignar TV and that she was initially reluctant to join the management of the channel.[ citation needed ] It was also admitted in court that Kanimozhi resigned from Kalaignar board after only two weeks to become a Member of Parliament. In an extraordinary twist, on 21 December 2017 a special CBI court acquitted her along with 19 others accused including A. Raja in 2G spectrum allocation cases. The Court said that the prosecution had failed to prove any of its charge. Thus all accused were acquitted.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam</span> Political party in India

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is an Indian political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu, where it is currently the ruling party, and the union territory of Puducherry, where it is currently the main opposition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M. Karunanidhi</span> Indian politician, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu

Muthuvel Karunanidhi was an Indian writer and politician who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for almost two decades over five terms between 1969 and 2011. He is popularly referred to as Kalaignar (Artist) and Mutthamizh Arignar for his contributions to Tamil literature. He had the longest intermittent tenure as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu with 6,863 days in office. He was also a long-standing leader of the Dravidian movement and ten-time president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam political party. Karunanidhi has the record of never losing an election to the Tamil Nadu Assembly, having won 13 times since his first victory in 1957. Before entering politics, he worked in the Tamil film industry as a screenwriter. He also made contributions to Tamil literature, having written stories, plays, novels, and a multiple-volume memoir. Karunanidhi died on 7 August 2018 at Kauvery Hospital in Chennai after a series of prolonged, age-related illnesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam</span> Indian political party

The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is a political party active in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It was established by Vaiko in 1994 after he left the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. The headquarters of the party is called Thayagam, which is located at Rukmini Lakshmipathi Salai, Egmore, Chennai.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaiko</span> Indian politician

Vaiyapuri Gopalsamy, better known as Vaiko, is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India from Tamil Nadu. He is the founder and General Secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), a political party active mainly in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He was earlier elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India from Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T. R. Baalu</span> Indian politician

Thalikkottai Rajuthevar Baalu, better known as T. R. Baalu, is an Indian politician. He is currently the MP of Lok Sabha of the Sriperumbudur constituency, elected five times since 1996 from Chennai South and Sriperumbudur. He is a leader of the DMK party and is known for his political loyalty, having been in the party since 1957. He is now the Treasurer of DMK, elected unopposed on 3 September 2020. He earlier served as the Principal Secretary of the DMK Party from August 2018 to January 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murasoli Maran</span> Indian politician

Murasoli Maran was an Indian politician and an important leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party which was headed by his maternal uncle and mentor, M. Karunanidhi. A Member of Parliament for 36 years, he was made a Union Minister in three separate central governments, in charge of Urban Development in the V.P. Singh government, Industry in the Gowda and Gujral governments, and finally Commerce and Industry under Vajpayee. Apart from being a politician, Maran was a journalist and scriptwriter for films too.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. Raja</span> Indian politician

Andimuthu Raja is an Indian politician from Tamil Nadu, who serves as Member of Parliament for the Nilgiris constituency and deputy general secretary for the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. He was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha representing the Nilgiris constituency of Tamil Nadu and had been elected to house four times since 1996. Raja is an advocate by profession and he did his master's degree from Government Law College in Tiruchirappalli.

L. Ganesan is an Indian politician. He is a member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He represents the Tiruchirappalli constituency of Tamil Nadu and is a member of DMK. He is called "Mozhipor Thalapathi".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M. K. Alagiri</span> Indian politician

Muthuvel Karunanidhi Alagiri, commonly known as M. K. Alagiri, is an Indian politician from Tamil Nadu and was a Union Cabinet Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers from 28 May 2009 to 20 March 2013. He is the second son of the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi and his second wife Dayalu Ammal and the head of South Zone of Dravida Munnetra Kazagham.

Pasumpon Tha Krishnan was an Indian politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K. Anbazhagan</span> Indian politician (1922–2020)

Kalyanasundaram Anbazhagan was an Indian politician. He was a long-standing leader of the Dravidian movement and was the General Secretary of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party (DMK) for nine terms. He has held several cabinet ministerial portfolios in the Tamil Nadu government under M. Karunanidhi including Finance, Education and Health and Social Welfare. He was elected as a member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on nine occasions. He was earlier elected to the Lok Sabha the lower house of India's Parliament from Tiruchengode and was also a member of the Madras Legislative Council. He served as the opposition leader of Tamil Nadu assembly from 2001 to 2006. He was popularly referred to as Perasiriyar (Professor) as he was a lecturer in Tamil in Pachaiyappa's College before resigning to contest elections in 1957.

Aladi Aruna (alias) V Arunachalam was an Indian politician. He was the Law Minister of Tamil Nadu. He was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly as a member of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam from Alangulam constituency in the 1967, 1971 and 1996 elections. He was elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's Parliament, from Tirunelveli constituency in the 1977 elections. He was also a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's Parliament, as a member of the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. He came into the limelight when he issued a dissent note in the JPC report on the Bofors Scandal against a clean chit to Rajiv Gandhi government. He was murdered in 2004.

The 2G spectrum case was a political controversy in which politicians and private officials of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition government India were allegedly involved in selling or allotting 122 2G spectrum licenses on conditions that provided an advantage to specific telecom operators. A. Raja, then Telecom Minister, was accused of selling 2G spectrum licenses at a very low cost which resulted in the loss of ₹1,760 billion in government revenue. Raja was also accused of not following rules and regulations as well as not recognizing any advice from the Ministries of Finance and Law and Justice of India while allotting 2G spectrum licenses to telecom operators. Series of allegations were made on allotting 2G spectrum licenses including allegations from Central Bureau of Investigation after investigating the case alleging Raja for intentionally advancing the cut-off date to favour some specific firms, which were allegedly ineligible for applying for telecom licenses, in return for bribes.

The Karunanidhi family are an Indian political family who have had considerable influence in the politics and cinema of Tamil Nadu. The most notable member of the family was M. Karunanidhi who was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for five terms and was the DMK party leader from 1969 till 2018.

The Dinakaran attack was a firebomb attack by M. K. Alagiri's supporters on 9 May 2007 on the Madurai office of Dinakaran, a Tamil newspaper, which resulted in the deaths of three people. The attack was a response to a survey published by Dinakaran on who people preferred as the future heir of M. Karunanidhi, chief of the political party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). During mass protests throughout the region, the offices of the newspaper were firebombed and two press employees and a private security guard died. 17 people were charged by the Central Bureau of Investigation, but were all acquitted by the district court. Dayanidhi Maran resigned from the Union Cabinet, where he had been the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, as a result of the controversy surrounding the attack, which created a rift between him and DMK.

The list of political families of Tamil Nadu state in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamilisai Soundararajan</span> 2nd Governor of Telangana

Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan is an Indian politician belongs to Bharatiya Janata Party. She served as the second Governor of Telangana, and also served as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry from 18 February 2021 to 18 March 2024. She was the National Secretary and Tamil Nadu State Unit President of the BJP prior to this appointment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">H. Raja</span> Indian politician

Hariharan Raja Sharma also known as H. Raja is an Indian politician. He started his political-social life as an Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) promoter. He was a MLA representing the Karaikudi constituency in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from 2001 to 2006. He was one of the national secretaries of the Bharatiya Janata Party from 2014 to 2020.

Dr Kanimozhi NVN Somu is a politician. She is a Member of Parliament, representing Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha the upper house of Indian Parliament as a member of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. She is the State Medical Wing Secretary and spokesperson of the party. She is a Doctor, having done her MBBS at Kilpauk Medical College and Master of Surgery from the Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute. She is the Founder and Chief Consultant of Thaaimai Hospital located at TTK ROAD, Alwarpet, Chennai and Thaaimai Fertility and Research Centre located at Gopalapuram, Chennai.

Kalaignar TV Private Limited is an Tamil mass media company headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Established on 14 April 1992 by M. Karunanidhi, it owns a variety of television channels in Tamil language and also radio station. Kalaignar TV launched its paid channel on 7 September 2022.

References

  1. ↑ "The Big and Mighty Karuna family". Daily News and Analysis . 26 May 2009. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
  2. ↑ "Detailed Profile: Smt. Kanimozhi". Govt. of India. Archived from the original on 30 March 2009. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 "Kanimozhi: A poetess politician in trouble". Sify.com. Archived from the original on 19 December 2010. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
  4. ↑ Kanimozhi the rising daughter in Tamil Nadu?. Dnaindia.com (7 March 2007). Retrieved on 27 March 2012.
  5. ↑ "'Why does god need gunman to protect hundiyal?': Kanimozhi's speech rankles Hindu group". 11 January 2018.
  6. ↑ "Fight against injustice, Kanimozhi tells women". The Hindu . Chennai, India. 24 March 2007. Archived from the original on 10 June 2007. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
  7. ↑ Karuthu Archived 26 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine . Karuthu. Retrieved on 27 March 2012.
  8. ↑ V. Mallady, Shastry (11 November 2008). "Private companies urged to participate in rural job fairs". The Hindu . Chennai, India. Archived from the original on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
  9. ↑ "ADMK job fairs a big draw in rural areas". Archived from the original on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 4 December 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  10. ↑ "Dravidian ideals will remain the central theme: Kanimozhi". The Hindu . Chennai, India. 15 September 2009. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
  11. ↑ Classic in a new idiom [usurped] . Hinduonnet.com (31 March 2004). Retrieved on 27 March 2012.
  12. ↑ "A Wedding In The Family ...", Rediff News, retrieved 9 December 2010
  13. ↑ "Kanimozhi, Tiruchi N. Siva, DMK nominees for Rajya Sabha polls". The Hindu. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  14. ↑ "BJP MPs head most panels, outnumber opposition in committees". Economic Times. 16 September 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  15. ↑ "Kanimozhi is the Hindu staff union president". The Hindu. 12 April 2017.
  16. ↑ "DMK holds rally in Delhi to demand early passage of Women's Bill". 20 March 2017.
  17. ↑ "Amit Shah, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Kanimozhi resign as Rajya Sabha members after being elected to 17th Lok Sabha". DNA India. 29 May 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  18. ↑ "Report about Kanamozhi on 2G case". Indian Express.
  19. ↑ "I am not involved in day-to-day running of Kalaignar TV". The Times of India . Archived from the original on 3 January 2013.
Lok Sabha
Preceded by Member of Parliament from Thoothukkudi
18 June 2019		Incumbent
Rajya Sabha
Preceded by Member of Parliament from Tamil Nadu
25 July 2007 – 23 May 2019		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Deputy General Secretary of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
9 October 2022		Incumbent
Preceded by
Office established
 Women's Wing Secretary of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
9 January 2015 – 23 November 2022		Succeeded by
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.