Thiruthuraipoondi Thiruvenkatam Vivekananda Dhinakaran (born 13 December 1963)[1][2] is an Indian politician and founding General Secretary of Amma Makkal Munneetra Kazhagam. His cadres revered him as Makkal Selvar.[clarification needed] In the past he was the Treasurer of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Party and served as the Member of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. He was expelled from the AIADMK in August 2017.[3][4] He also served as former Member of the 15th Tamil Nadu Assembly from Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar (2017-2021).[5] He is the nephew of V. K. Sasikala. He won the highly anticipated RK Nagar by-election in December 2017. On 15 March 2018 Dhinakaran launched his political party named Amma Makkal Munnettra Kazhagam.[6]
Dhinakaran was born on 12 December 1963. He is the son of Sasikala's sister Vanithamani, T. Vivekanandam Muniyaraiyar. His younger brother, Baskaran "Bas", had a brief stint in cinema as the protagonist in Thalaivan (2014).[7]
Dhinakaran is described as a cool-headed and religious person.[7]
Dhinakaran was a Member of Lok Sabha, representing Periyakulam from 1999 to 2004,[8][9] and was runner-up in the seat at 2004 general election when he was defeated by J. M. Aaron Rashid. In the 2017, he played major role in making Edappadi K. Palanisamy as Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister. R.K. Nagar by-election, he defeated AIADMK's candidate E. Madhusudhanan with a huge margin of votes as an independent candidate.[10] He assumed the office of MLA on 29 December 2017.
Dinakaran was reinducted into the AIADMK and appointed deputy general secretary on 15 February 2017, hours before V. K. Sasikala left to surrender herself in the Bengaluru court to serve the jail term in a disproportionate assets case. He was expelled from the party in August 2017[3] and launched his own party, Amma Makkal Munnettra Kazagam (AMMK), on 15 March 2018.[6] Dhinakaran announced that Sasikala would be the general secretary while he would be the deputy general secretary.[11] On 19 April 2019, he was elected as the general secretary.[12]
He failed to win his seat to Kadambur Raju in Kovilpatti Assembly constituency in 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election.[13][14] Dhinakaran anncounced on 11 March 2024 that his party was joining the National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2024 Indian general election, assuring it of unconditional support.[15] It failed to win from any of the two seats, although Dhinakaran managed to become the runner-up in the elections to the Theni Lok Sabha constituency.[16]
On 17 April 2017, Delhi police registered a case against Dhinakaran regarding an allegation of attempting to bribe the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the AIADMK's election symbol.[17] It was claimed that a middle-man named Sukesh Chandrasekhar was raided and arrested in Delhi and was found with 13 million, allegedly meant as a bribe for the ECI in exchange for the symbol. Dinakaran was charged with conspiracy and corruption in the case.[18] The Tis Hazari Special Court granted him bail[19] on the grounds that the police had failed to identify the public official allegedly bribed, accepting the argument made by his lawyer Aman Lekhi.[20]
| Year | Constituency | Party | Votes | % | Opponent | Opponent Party | Opponent Votes | % | Result | Margin | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Theni | AMMK | 292,668 | 25.65 | Thanga Tamil Selvan | DMK | 571,493 | 50.08 | Lost | -278,825 | -24.43 | ||
| 2004 | Periyakulam | AIADMK | 325,696 | 46.49 | J. M. Aaron Rashid | INC | 346,851 | 49.51 | Lost | -21,155 | -3.02 | ||
| 1999 | 303,881 | 45.6 | P. Selvendran | DMK | 258,075 | 38.8 | Won | 45,806 | 6.8 | ||||
| Year | Constituency | Party | Votes | % | Opponent | Opponent Party | Opponent Votes | % | Result | Margin | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Kovilpatti | AMMK | 56,153 | 31.23 | Kadambur Raju | AIADMK | 68,558 | 38.13 | Lost | -12,405 | -6.9 | ||
| 2017 | R.K. Nagar | IND | 89,013 | 50.32 | E. Madhusudhanan | AIADMK | 48,306 | 27.31 | Won | 40,707 | 23.01 | ||
