Sengottaiyan: Ups and downs in the career of a long-standing AIADMK loyalist

K.A. Sengottaiyan, who has been relieved of positions in the AIADMK, such as organisation secretary and Erode (Suburban-West) district secretary, is known as a steadfast loyalist, despite having been sidelined by the party leadership more than once.

In the early 1970s, he began his career in public life as the president of the Kullampalayam panchayat unit (which was then in the Coimbatore district) of the AIADMK. A nine-time legislator, the 77-year-old leader was first elected from the Sathyamangalam Assembly constituency in 1977 when the AIADMK captured power for the first time. Three years later, he shifted to his native place, Gobichettiyapalaym (in Erode district), from where he won eight times. In the 1996 elections, he tasted his only defeat.

Five years later, he was not given ticket to contest the Assembly polls. In 2006, he returned to the Assembly after a gap of 10 years. In the first Cabinet (1991-1996) headed by Jayalalithaa, he held the portfolios of Transport and Forests. He had to wait for 15 years to become Minister again, when Jayalalithaa returned to power in May 2011.

For the next 14 months, he was Minister for Agriculture, Information Technology, and Revenue. When he lost his ministership, he was also removed from the post of party headquarters secretary. Since then, he had maintained a low profile even though he was given the ticket in the 2016 Assembly elections when he defeated his nearest rival and Congress nominee, S.V. Saravanan.

When there were reports of his disenchantment after the death of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in December 2016, he was mollified by V.K. Sasikala, the then interim general secretary of the party. In early February 2017, he was made one of the organising secretaries. In the wake of the party’s presidium chairman E. Madhusudanan switching over to the camp of former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, who then led a revolt against the party leadership, Ms. Sasikala had made Mr. Sengottaiyan the chairman.

At a press conference on Friday (September 5, 2025), Mr Sengottaiyan claimed that after Jayalalithaa’s death, before Ms.Sasikala had nominated Mr. Palaniswami for the post of Chief Minister, he declined the top post twice “for the unity and strength of the party.” In the Cabinet led by Edappadi K. Palaniswami during February 2017-May 2021, the veteran leader was School Education Minister. His stint was marked by the regime’s attempts to carry out reforms in the field of school education so that students of the State government stream were prepared for all-India exams such as Joint Entrance Examination (for admission to Indian Institutes of Technology), NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test) for medical courses and the Common Law Admission Test.

When turmoil began

His differences with Mr. Palaniswami surfaced for the first time in February this year when he did not attend a function organised by a body of farmers to felicitate Mr. Palaniswami at Annur in Coimbatore district. He claimed then that his grievance was that the images of former Chief Ministers M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa were not featured in the invitation and banners put up for the event. He had complained that it was due to “sabotage” that the party nominee lost in the 2021 Assembly election in Anthiyur, a constituency reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and considered a traditional stronghold of the AIADMK.

Two months later, he gave an indication of having sorted out his differences with Mr. Palaniswami. However, early July, when the AIADMK general secretary launched his State-wide tour, Mr. Sengottaiyan was not present, and said he would not join the tour unless his call for resolving the issue of re-admission of former members of the party was addressed.

Known for his affableness, the former Minister is regarded as someone who knows every nook and corner of the State like the back of his hand, and an excellent organiser who meticulously organised the election tours of Jayalalithaa. In March 1989, when the Assembly witnessed violence, then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi accused Mr. Sengottaiyan of assaulting him (Mr. Karunanidhi) and breaking his spectacles.