All in three years, the rise and fall of Manikandan

Critics celebrate his abrupt exit from the cabinet

Former Tamil Nadu Minister M. Manikandan

Sacked Information Technology Minister M. Manikandan, a doctor by qualification, had a meteoric rise in the AIADMK soon after his surprise entry in the poll arena in 2016. His abrupt exit from the cabinet on Wednesday evening was celebrated by his critics, with the bursting of crackers on Thursday.

Dr. Manikandan entered the electoral arena as a “dark horse”, but went on to win, defeating the then sitting MLA and Manithaneya Makkal Katchi leader M.H. Jawahirullah. He earned a berth in the Jayalalithaa cabinet. From a low profile party’s medical wing deputy secretary, the physician turned politician, stepped up the ladder to become an MLA, Minister and party’s district secretary in quick succession, only to be divested of the party post within three weeks and sacked from the cabinet in less than three years.

He faced the axe hours after making controversial remarks, accusing Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami of unilaterally slashing the Arasu cable television subscription tariff and joining issue with Animal Husbandry Minister Udumalai K. Radhakrishnan over shifting of subscribers to Arasu cable.

Before making the adverse remarks, Dr. Manikandan, who was upset with the appointment of Mr. Radhakrishnan as chairman of the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable Television Corporation, had a wordy duel with him when they were camping in Vellore for the election campaign recently.

Soon after he secured a berth in the cabinet, he was appointed party’s district secretary on June 8, 2016, only to be sacked from the post within three weeks, amid reports that he had failed to get along with party colleagues and behaved “rudely” with senior leaders.

Party unhappy

An undeterred Dr. Manikandan became more assertive and claimed that he was the sole representative of three constituencies in the district, after Paramakudi MLA Dr. S. Muthiah, supporter of T.T.V. Dhinakaran, was disqualified, and Thiruvadanai MLA S. Karunas fell out from the ruling party.

When Dr. Manikandan openly crossed swords with senior party leader and then MP A. Anwhar Raajhaa last year, not many in the party liked his style, but chose to get along. The party high command was not happy with him, and this became evident in June when it asked him to cancel his visit to Thiruvadanai to distribute laptops to students at the instance of MLA Karunas.