Paneerselvam: Neither Stalin nor Alagiri man

Son of a popular DMK leader M R Krishnamurthy, M R K Paneerselvam entered politics in 1988 as the party’s Kattumannarkudi youth wing secretary.After graduating from the Chennai law college, he had started involving himself in political activities in the locality when his father was the district secretary of DMK from 1987-1989. During that period, Paneerselvam became the Kattumannarkudi circle urban housing board president and the Chidambaram circle co-operative society president in 1989.In the 1991 elections, he contested from Kurinjipadai and lost to K S Azhagiri,. After that setback, he kept winning from the same constituency till 2006. In the 2011 Assembly election, DMK failed to win even one seat in Cuddalore district, which has nine constituencies. Paneerselvam lost his seat to Sorathur Rajendran of AIADMK. In the party, his growth started when he became the district secretary in 1992 after Cuddalore district was formed. DMK leaders like Gingee Ramachandran and Durai Krishnamurthy are said to have played a vital role in making Paneerselvam the Cuddalore district secretary of DMK amidst opposition. In 1996, he was made the minister of backward classes and in 2006 he was first given the registrations and stamps portfolio. Later he became the health and family welfare minister.Though he was a staunch supporter of M K Stalin till he faced problems and rift in the party in Cuddalore district, he shifted his loyalty to M K Alagiri in 2009 and played a key role in convening the first DMK State women’s wing conference by inviting Kanimozhi in Cuddalore in 2010. Subsequently, Paneerselvam literally failed to prove his loyalty to any of the children of party patriarch M Karunanidhi - neither to Stalin nor Alagiri or Kanimozhi.In the district, Paneerselvam antoganised many party heavyweights. Among those with whom he fell out were Nellikuppam ex-MLA V C Shanmugam (now in DMDK), former district secretary of DMK Pon Jayaganapathi (now in AIADMK) and former DMK MLA Cuddalore Iyyappan (now in AIADMK).His opponents include Panruti Saba Rajendran, Chidambaram Durai K Saravanan and Maruthur Ramalingam.Paneerselvam also pulled in family members and gave them key posts. For instance, Chidambaram municipality vice-chairman Mangayakarasi is his sister and Mayiladuthurai municipality chairman Linga Rajan is his relative. Vadalur V Sivakumar, who is Kurinjipadi union secretary of DMK, is also his relative.Of late, his son M R K P Kathiravan has been involving in party activities.