Six-time MLA Parithi Ilamvazhuthi, who was the lone DMK member for the better part of the 1991-1996 term in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, before switching political parties, died here on Saturday of a heart attack. He was 58.
The DMK was routed in the 1991 elections, held in the wake of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, and it was left to him to represent the party in the Assembly as the only other victor in that election and party leader M. Karunanidhi resigned his MLA post soon after. The 1991 election was countermanded in Egmore (and Musiri) because of the death of one of the candidates, and when it was held a month later, Parithi was elected from Egmore.
Parithi’s performance in the Assembly greatly pleased the DMK leadership and earned him the monikers “Abimanyu and Indrajit” from Karunanidhi.
He was at ease with sharp, loaded Tamil, which he would use to advantage in the House. Often, it took other legislators some time to even figure out what he was actually saying. It was during this period that he started wearing trousers instead of dhoti, saying the former was a ‘safer’ attire, even as he departed from the norm of wearing dhotis.
Parithi was made Deputy Speaker of the Assembly after the DMK came to power in 1996. He became the Minister of Information in the DMK government between 2006 and 2011 and released an album containing the songs of Parasakthi in digitised form.
Arrested in 2003
The AIADMK rule between 2001 and 2006 witnessed Parithi locking horns regularly with Speaker Kalimuthu and he was also arrested on a privilege issue in the Assembly in 2003.
In the DMK, he identified himself with the Maran brothers and had a difference of opinion with present DMK president M.K. Stalin. He joined the AIADMK in 2013. Son of Ilamparithi, the DMK’s district secretary of composite Chennai, Parithi was first elected from the Perambur constituency in 1984, when he was only 25, by defeating Sathyavani Muthu, who was a Minister in the government led by C.N. Annadurai and M. Karunanidhi. Subsequently, he was elected from the Egmore constituency for five times. He was defeated by the DMDK candidate in the 2011 election and entered the fray once again in 2016 as the AIADMK candidate. But he could not win.
In the AIADMK, he became a supporter of T.T.V. Dhinakaran and was expelled from the party. At the time of his death, he was a member of Mr. Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam.
DMK president M.K. Stalin paid homage to Parithi. MDMK leader Vaiko, Mr. Dhinakaran and DK president K. Veeramani were among those who condoled his death.
Published - October 13, 2018 11:58 pm IST
