Senior AIADMK leader and former Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P H Pandian died at a private hospital here this morning after a prolonged illness.
For the uninitiated, PH Pandian was an Indian politician of the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu from Tirunelveli district. He served as the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.
He was one of the only two candidates elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislature from the Janaki Ramachandran Faction of AIADMK in 1989 when he won the Cheranmahadevi seat. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tirunelveli Parliamentary constituency in 1999. He was the organizing secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam which was led by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
Pandian was one of the two senior AIADMK leaders who had not supported the ascension of Sasikala Natarajan within the party after the death of Jayalalithaa in December 2016. Pandian further spoke out against Sasikala’s chief ministerial candidacy in February 2017, asserting that she was unfit for the position. He also raised suspicions over Jayalalithaa’s death claiming that she had died under unnatural circumstances
