V. Senthil Balaji is an Indian politician from Tamil Nadu.

Early life and family

V Senthil Balaji was born on 21 October 1975 in Rameswarapatti a small village in

Karur district Karur District is one of the 38 districts (a district located centrally along the Kaveri and Amaravathi River, Amaravathi rivers) in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The main town in Karur District is the city of Karur, which is also the district ...

. Belongs to Kongu Vellala Gounder community. He hails from an agricultural background. He has completed his high school & Higher Secondary school studies from Rameswarapatti Govt. School, Vivekananda School, Pasupathypalayam and Municipal Higher Secondary school, Karur. He entered politics at the age of 21 and was active since early 2000s.

Politics

In 1997 he began his public service as a

local body Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

member. He was the Minister for Transport of the

Government of Tamil Nadu Government of Tamil Nadu is the subnational government for the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is seated at Fort St George, Chennai. The legislature of Tamil Nadu was bicameral until 1986, when it was replaced by a unicameral legislature, lik ...

from

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

to 2015. He was dropped from

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

in July 2015. As a cadre of

Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK) is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is a Dravidian party founded by the former chief mini ...

, he was previously elected to the same Karur constituency in 2006 general elections. He was elected as a MLA from Aravakurichi constituency in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

. After the demise of

Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016) was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 9 February 1989 to 5 December 2 ...

he played a key role in saving the government. When

AIADMK The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK) is an Indian Regionalism (politics), regional political party with great influence in the Federated state, state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry (union territory) ...

separated into factions he stood by

T. T. V. Dhinakaran Thiruthurapoondi Thiruvenkatam Vivekananda Dhinakaran (born 13 December 1963) is an Indian politician and founding General Secretary of Amma Makkal Munneetra Kazagam. In the past he was the Treasurer of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ...

. On 18 September 2017, 18 MLA's were disqualified by the speaker

P. Dhanapal P. Dhanapal (born 16 May 1951) is an Indian politician and incumbent Member of the Legislative Assembly (India), Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu. He is a former Speaker (politics), Speaker of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. P. ...

for their petition to the

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Mr. Banwarilal Purohit to change the

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

. He joined

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; DMK) is a political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu where it is currently the ruling party having a comfortable majority without coalition support and the union territory of Puducherry where it is curre ...

(DMK), in the presence of Party President

M. K. Stalin Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin ( , born 1 March 1953), often referred to by his initials MKS, is an Indian Tamil politician serving as the 8th and current Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. The son of the former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, Stalin ...

on 14 December 2018. Soon after joining the party he was offered District Secretary post and later was announced as by-election candidate for Aravakurichi constituency. He was elected as a MLA on 23 May 2019 for fourth time. He serves as a member of the

Tamil Nadu legislative assembly The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It has a strength of 234 members of whom are democratically elected using the First-past-the-post voting, First-past-the-post system. The pres ...

. He won election held in the month of April 2021 and has been currently serving as Minister for Electricity, Prohibition & Excise.

Cabinet minister

From 2006 - 2011 he was the Member of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, from

Karur Karur () is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Karur is the administrative headquarters of Karur district. It is located on the banks of River Amaravathi, Kaveri and Noyyal. Karur is well known for the export of Home Textile products to ...

. From 2016 - 2021 he was the Member of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly,

Aravakurichi Aravakurichi is a panchayat town and a Taluk headquarters in Karur district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. Aravakurichi is well known in Tamil Nadu as a major market for Moringa oleifera vegetable (commonly known as Drumstick). Aravakurichi ...

From 2011 - 2015 he was the Minister for Transport, Nationalised Transport, Motor Vehicles Act. In 2021 he was minister fo
Electricity, Non Conventional Energy Development, Prohibition and Excise, Molasses

Electoral performance

References

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam politicians Living people State cabinet ministers of Tamil Nadu Year of birth missing (living people) Tamil Nadu MLAs 2021–2026 Tamil Nadu politicians {{DMK-politician-stub