Former Minister and AIADMK Presidium Chairman E Madhusudanan (79) died at a private hospital in Chennai due to multi organ dysfunction on Thursday, 5 August. Madhusudanan had been undergoing treatment at the hospital for the last two weeks, but his health deteriorated on Thursday and he passed away.
Madhusudanan, who is one of the oldest and experienced members of the AIADMK party, fell severely ill in July this year. Edappadi K Palaniswami, the former Chief Minister of the state and joint co-ordinator of the AIADMK visited Madhusudanan at the Greams road Apollo Hospital in July.
AIADMK’s former interim general secretary VK Sasikala too had visited Madhusudanan while he had been admitted at the hospital.
A loyalist of MG Ramachandran, Madhusudanan has worked with MGR, Jayalalithaa, OPS and EPS over the years.
When the party split after MGR’s demise and leaders chose to either join MGR’s wife Janaki or J Jayalalithaa, Madhusudanan was one of the prominent leaders who declared support to the latter.
Between 1991 and 1996, he served as Textiles Minister in the Jayalalithaa government. He was convicted and later acquitted in the free sari and dhoti scam.
He was given various responsibilities in the party including being made the Propaganda Secretary of the party. At one point, he had differences with Jayalalithaa and left the party, but he later returned. In 2010, Jayalalithaa had brought Madhusudhanan in as the Presidium Chairman of the AIADMK, and he has held the post ever since.
In february 2017, Madhusudanan joined the OPS camp and stood against Sasikala. This happened a few days after he claimed Sasikala would make a good Chief Minister.
When he joined the OPS camp, Madhusudanan regretted these remarks. In 2018, he contested as the AIADMK candidate in the RK Nagar by-election. Though he hails from north Madras and has won from there in 1991, Madhusudanan lost to TTV Dhinakaran.
(This article was first published in The News Minute and then republished here with permission.)
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