Three-time DMK MLA, J. Anbazhagan, died on Wednesday, days after he tested positive for COVID-19 at a private hospital in Chennai, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami announced on his Twitter account on Wednesday morning.
DMK president M.K. Stalin confirmed the news in a statement and expressed his sadness and condolences. An official bulletin from Rela Institute and Medical Centre, where he was admitted, said the MLA was fighting for his life with severe COVID-19 pneumonia and his condition deteriorated rapidly early this morning when he succumbed to his illness. “He was declared dead at 8.05 a.m,” the hospital said.
Anbazhagan was 61, and the first legislator to die of COVID-19 in the State.
Anbazhagan represented the Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni constituency in the Assembly, a seat held by former DMK president M. Karunanidhi in the past [when it was Chepauk].
He was first elected to the Assembly from the T.Nagar constituency in 2001. However, he was defeated in the seat by the AIADMK candidate in 2006. In 2011, he won from the Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni seat and retained it in the 2016 elections.
According to a medical bulletin last issued on Monday evening , Anbazhagan was admitted to the ICU at Rela Institute and Medical Centre on June 2 and tested positive for COVID-19 on admission. He was subsequently put on ventilator support on June 3, when his respiratory condition worsened and was under high flow oxygen therapy. The hospital said he was initially getting 90% oxygen on the ventilator which improved steadily over the next two days to 40% and he was gradually weaned off the ventilator.
However, since Monday evening there was a significant deterioration in his condition. His oxygen requirement went up again and his cardiac function deteriorated requiring medicine support for blood pressure. In an evening bulletin, Ilankumaran Kaliamoorthy, CEO, Rela Institute, Anbazhagan’s chronic kidney disease had also worsened, on Monday.
Anbazhagan, the DMK’s secretary for the party’s Chennai West region was popularly known as ‘Pazhakadai Anbazhagan’, a moniker after the famous juice stall at the entrance of Ranganathan Street in T.Nagar, started by his father K. Jayaraman, a prominent local functionary of the DMK
Often known for intervening in the Assembly, Anbazhagan was suspended from the Assembly for three days in January this year after he tore a copy of the Governor’s address and threw it on the Speaker’s desk.
The MLA had filed a petition before the Madras High court in the gutkha scam that led the court to order a CBI probe into the matter.
Anbazhagan also dabbled in films, as a producer of one film Aadhi Baghavan in 2013 and a distributor for another, Yaaruda Mahesh , under his Anbu Pictures banner.
In 2011, he was among the DMK leaders who were arrested on land grabbing charges after the AIADMK stormed to power.
