K. Ramani (16 July 1916, Iddapal,

Palakkad district Palakkad District () is one of the 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala. It was carved out from the southeastern region of the former Malabar District on 1 January 1957. It is located at the centre of Kerala. It is the largest district i ...

– 30 May 2006,

Coimbatore Coimbatore, also spelt as Koyamputhur (), sometimes shortened as Kovai (), is one of the major metropolitan cities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyyal River and surrounded by the Western Ghats. Coimbato ...

) was an Indian politician. He was elected to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

in 1969, four times to the

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

Legislative Assembly and was the Tamil Nadu State Committee president of the

Centre of Indian Trade Unions Centre of Indian Trade Unions, CITU is a National level Trade Union in India and its trade union wing is a spearhead of the Indian Trade Union Movement. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions is today one of biggest assemblies of workers and classe ...

. Born in

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

, his family moved to Coimbatore when Ramani was 14 years old. At young age, Ramani worked in a hotel. Ramani became politically radicalised, and joined the

Congress Socialist Party The Congress Socialist Party (CSP) was a socialist caucus within the Indian National Congress. It was founded in 1934 by Congress members who rejected what they saw as the anti-rational mysticism of Gandhi as well as the sectarian attitude of th ...

. In 1939 he joined the

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

, along with many other CSP cadres. He became involved in trade union organising. He was arrested and jailed twice during this period. When the Communist Party was banned in 1948, Ramani went underground. After two years of underground life, he was caught by police. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment. When the CPI was legalised in 1951, Ramani was released from jail. In 1959 Ramani was elected to the National Council of the Communist Party. In the 1964 split in the party, Ramani was one of 32 National Council members that sided with the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

. Soon after the formation of the party, he was again arrested. He was released after 16 months in jail. In 1967, he was elected to the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) from the

constituency. Ramani got 240,856 votes (57.93%) defeating the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

candidate, industrialist

N. Mahalingam Nachimuthu Mahalingam (April 9, 1923 – October 2, 2014) was an Indian educationist, industrialist, philanthropist and prominent person in Tamil Nadu. He was the Chairman of the Sakthi Group and Chairman of Ethiraj College for Women between 1972 a ...

. During the Emergency 1975–1977, Ramani was again jailed. Ramani represented the Coimbatore East seat in the Tamil Nadu assembly 1977–1991. On 1 February 1989, he was appointed pro-tem Speaker of the assembly.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramani, K. Tamil Nadu MLAs 1985–1989 1916 births 2006 deaths Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from Tamil Nadu India MPs 1967–1970 Trade unionists from Tamil Nadu Lok Sabha members from Tamil Nadu People from Palakkad district Trade unionists from Kerala People from the Kingdom of Travancore Politicians from Coimbatore