Vazhappady K. Ramamurthy or Vazhapadi K. Ramamoorthy (1940 – 22 October 2002) was an Indian trade unionist and politician.

Political career

He was an ardent follower of the late K Kamaraj and

E. V. K. Sampath Erode Venkatappa Krishnasamy Sampath( – 23 February 1977), usually referred to as ''E. V. K. Sampath'' was a prominent politician from Tamil Nadu, India. He was an advocate of the Dravidian Movement of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy and was conside ...

. He belonged to the Vanniyar community. He served as the President of

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) is the wing of Indian National Congress serving in Tamil Nadu. The current president is K.S. Alagari. Social policy of the TNCC is officially based upon the Gandhian principle of Sarvodaya (upliftment of all ...

From 1989 to 1994, he was the Youth Congress President of

Salem, Tamil Nadu Salem (), is a major city in Salem district, located on the banks of Thirumanimutharu river in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Salem is the List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, sixth largest urban agglomeration and metropolitan city in ...

. Ramamurthy was elected as a member of the Lok Sabha six times and was defeated twice, in 1996 and 1999. He was involved with the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...

and served as minister of state for Labour with independent charge in the Congress government led by

P. V. Narasimha Rao Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (28 June 1921 – 23 December 2004) was an Indian lawyer, statesman and politician who served as the 9th prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996. He is known for introducing various liberal reforms to Indi ...

for a brief period in 1991. He quit his ministerial post on the Cauvery issue. He was president of the TNCC for six years before being replaced in 1996 when he formed 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 ...

unit of the Tiwari Congress. Ramamurthy went back to the Congress but left that party again to form Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress (TRC). He was part of

NDA NDA may stand for: Military * National Defence Academy (India), a military academy in India * National Defence Act, legislation for organizing and funding Canada's military * National Defense Academy of Japan, a military academy in Japan * Nig ...

and become Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas. With the creation of the TRC, he subsequently announced that it would have an alliance with AIADMK in the upcoming

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 ...

election. A few days later,

J. Jayalalitha 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 ...

announced that TRC was entering the AIADMK-led front, although she denied having engineered the split in the Congress Party. In January 2002, after eight years, Ramamurthy merged TRC with Congress. Ramamurthy was associated with various trade unions and workers' organizations, serving as honorary president of INTUC Tamil Nadu, Founder-President of the International Institute for Non-aligned Studies, Vice-President of INTUC, Tamil Nadu, and founding member and president of Indian National Rural Labour Federation INRLF, a labour union formed for unorganized rural employees.

Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress

Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress was a regional

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. TRC was formed when Vazhapadi Ramamurthy split from the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

. TRC merged with Congress in 2002.

Electoral records

He was

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

elected from

. He was elected to the

as an

candidate from Dharmapuri constituency in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

election and from Krishnagiri constituency in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

and

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

elections. He was elected from Krishnagiri constituency as an Indian National Congress (Indira) candidate in

election. He was elected from Salem constituency as an Independent candidate in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

election.

Parliament Committees

1977-79 Member, Committee on Papers Laid on the Table; Member, Business Advisory Committee; Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Labour; Deputy Chief Whip, Congress Parliamentary Party, (Indira) .P.P.(I) 1980 Member, Committee on Public Undertakings; Member, Business Advisory Committee; Member, Committee on Privileges; Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Labour 1985-87 Chairman, Committee on Public Undertakings; Committee on Public Undertakings 1986-89 Member, Committee on Public Accounts; Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Labor 1990 Member, Committee of Privileges, Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Labor and Welfarehttp://www.parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/lok12/biodata/12TN16.htm

Personal life

His wife, R Kalaimani, was a retired teacher, and they shared two sons and a daughter. His eldest son, Vazhapadi Rama Suganthan, is an AICC member, INRLF National General Secretary and Chairman of Rajiv Gandhi Vazhapadi K Ramamurthy Charitable trust, while his younger son, Vazhapadi R Karnan, is President of INRLF Tamil Nadu state. Ramamurthy died in Chennai on 27 October 2002.

Political career

Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress

Electoral records

Parliament Committees

Personal life

See also

References

Further reading