View source for Sedapatti R. Muthiah

{{Short description|Indian politician (1945–2022)}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name =Sedapatti R. Muthaiah
| birth_date =  {{birth_date|1945|10|4|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Madurai district|Muthappanpatti]], [[Madras Presidency]], British India
| death_date = {{death date and age|2022|9|21|1945|10|4|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Madurai]], Tamil Nadu, India
| otherparty = [[All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam]] (1972 - 2000)
| party = [[Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam]]
| honorific-prefix =
| honorific-suffix =
| image = Sedapatti Muthiah (Indian politician).jpg
| order5 = Member of the [[Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly]]
| term_start5 = 1977
| term_end5 = 1989
| order4 = Member of Parliament ([[Lok Sabha]]) for [[Periyakulam]]
| term_start4 = 1989
| term_end4 = 1991
| predecessor4 = [[P. Selvendran]]
| successor4 = [[R. Ramasamy]]
| order3 = 8th [[List of speakers of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly|Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly]]
| term_start3 = 1991
| term_end3 = 1996
| deputy3 = [[K. Ponnuswamy]]<br/>[[S. Gandhirajan]]
| predecessor3 = [[M. Tamilkudimagan]]
| successor3 = [[P. T. R. Palanivel Rajan]]
| order2 = Member of Parliament ([[Lok Sabha]]) for [[Periyakulam]]
| term_start2 = 1998
| term_end2 = 1999
| predecessor2 = [[R. Gnanagurusamy]]
| successor2 = [[T. T. V. Dhinakaran]]
| order1 = [[Ministry of Road Transport and Highways|Union Minister for Surface Transport]]
| term_start1 = 19 March 1998
| term_end1 = 8 April 1998
| predecessor1 = [[T. G. Venkatraman]]
| successor1 = [[M. Thambidurai]]
}}
'''Sedapatti R. Muthiah''' (4 October 1945 – 21 September 2022) was an Indian politician of the [[Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam]]. He was one of the leaders of the [[All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam]] (AIADMK) from its creation and was second in command in AIADMK until 1998. He was popularly known by the name Sedapattiar. He remained a popular politician in [[Madurai]] district and had a mass support base in [[T.Kallupatti]] Union.
==Early life and background==
Muthiah was born in the small village of Muthappanpatti 5&nbsp;km from [[T. Kallupatti]]. He was a post-graduate (M.Sc.) in Mathematics with Distinction from Thiyagarajar College, Madurai. Muthiah wanted to pursue Engineering after his PUC. Since he was from a rural background, he did not get admission into engineering college. He was into academics before moving into politics.
==Early political life==
R. Muthiah entered politics as Student Leader in [[Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam]] (DMK) in the early days of Dravidian Movement. He took part in the [[anti-Hindi agitations]]. He was also a good orator in Tamil. When M.G.R. started AIADMK a lot of his supporters left DMK and joined AIADMK. Muthiah along with his supporters joined as well given the fact that M.G.R. had a major support in Madurai Region. In fact Muthiah was the first choice of M.G.R. to contest from Dindidul constituency for the party's first election campaign since its inception in 1973. Due to some reasons, the chance went to [[Maya Thevar]].
==State politics==
Muthiah was chosen to stand from [[Sedapatti (State Assembly Constituency)|Sedapatti]] constituency under which hometown comes based on the support he had as a Student Leader in 1977. He won the elections and got elected to the Legislative Assembly. He went on to win consecutive elections from Sedapatti. He was made the Speaker of the Assembly in 1991 and continued his tenure till 1996. Due to his continued victory in all elections he became a household name of the region and hence was fondly called as "Sedappattiyar" by people of the area, which later became his name. During his time [[T.Kallupatti]] transitioned itself from a sleepy small village into a Town Panchayat administering 42 villages.
[[File:Sedpatti Muthiah with M.G.Ramachandiran.jpg|thumb|Sedpatti Muthiah with [[M.G.Ramachandiran]]]]
==National politics==
He was elected as a Member of Parliament twice from Periyakulam Constituency for [[Ninth Lok Sabha]] and [[Twelfth Lok Sabha]]. In the Twelfth Lok Sabha he served as a Union Minister for Surface Transport in [[Atal Bihari Vajpayee]] cabinet.<ref>http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19980322/08150624.html {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref> He was in the post for a short period of time and had to resign due to a case in Chennai court. He graciously resigned from the post and faced the charges for the 42 lakh case.<ref>http://www.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/.../09950294.html{{dead link|date=May 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Political critics say DMK was behind the case. His resignation is a rare occurrence comparing the scams of recent years of very large proportion. He then served as Leader of AIADMK in the parliament and raised issues concerning people.
===Turning point===
During the [[Twelfth Lok Sabha]] Vajpayee called for a Vote of Confidence after AIADMK had withdrawn support to the government. In the end Vajpayee lost the Vote of Confidence by 1 vote, the Opposition had polled 270 votes and the BJP 269. He had to vote "against" the Confidence Motion as directed by AIADMK. But because of a Technical Error instead of No the machine displayed Abstained. The voting machine showed that Mr. Muthiah abstained from voting. The technical issue was acknowledged by the Parliament Team but the same was not rectified by them at that time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19990501/ipo01078p.html |title=Indian Express: LS secretariat refuses to rectify Muthiah's error |accessdate=2010-11-27 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010222725/http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19990501/ipo01078p.html |archivedate=10 October 2012 }}</ref> This led the AIADMK leader to think Muthiah plotted to save the Vajpayee Government and expelled him from the party. Political critics were surprised at how the technical error led to the fall of a soft-spoken veteran politician. ''The Counter Thoughts of a Parliamentary Official'', written by Ramanujam Kodhandaraman, former Cabinet Deputy Secretary and former Goa State Secretary, describes what happened during the No Motion of Confidence in 12th Lok Sabha.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/20000417/ina17008.html |title=Sedapatti blames Sasikala of hijacking party |accessdate=2010-11-27 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010222739/http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/20000417/ina17008.html |archivedate=10 October 2012 }}</ref><ref>http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19990418/ipo18003.html {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref>
===Post AIADMK===
[[File:Muthiah with Kalaingar Karunanidhi.jpg|thumb|Sedapatti Muthiah and his son Manimaran with [[M. Karunanidhi|Kalaingar Karunanidhi]]]]
Muthiah was shocked along with the lakhs of supporters on the news of his dismissal. He reacted saying it's Sasikala who is responsible for the issues. In 2001 elections he fielded his wife Mrs. Shakunthala and got a sizable number of votes almost denting most of AIADMK votes.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://eci.nic.in/archive/se2001/pollupd/ac/states/s22/Acnstcand136.htm#5 |title=State Elections 2001 Candidates Details for 136-Sedapatti constituency of TAMIL NADU |access-date=8 January 2011 |archive-date=30 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120930013719/http://eci.nic.in/archive/se2001/pollupd/ac/states/s22/Acnstcand136.htm#5 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He stayed away from politics for some time and then joined DMK in 2006 and he became one of the office bearers of the DMK Electoral wing. Large number of his supporters from T. Kallupatti Union joined DMK which has enabled a major mobilisation of votes for DMK during the Parliamentary elections. He was actively involved in all political events. He proved his power in his younger son's marriage which was presided over by M. Karunanidhi, then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.<ref>[http://news.oneindia.in/2008/08/28/former-aiadmk-minister-selvaganapathy-joins-dmk-1219907702.html ] {{Dead link|date=August 2022}}</ref>
==Electoral performance==
===Tamilnadu Legislative Assembly Elections===
{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Elections
!Constituency
!Party
!Result
!Vote percentage
!Opposition Candidate
!Opposition Party
!Opposition vote percentage
|-
|[[1977 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election]]||[[Sedapatti Assembly constituency|Sedapatti]]||[[All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|AIADMK]]||{{Won}}||43.52||A. R. P. Alagarsamy||[[Indian National Congress|INC]]||26.41
|-
|[[1980 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election]]||[[Sedapatti Assembly constituency|Sedapatti]]||[[All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|AIADMK]]||{{Won}}||59.87||R. S. Thangarasan||[[Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|DMK]]||26.41
|-
|[[1984 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election]]||[[Sedapatti Assembly constituency|Sedapatti]]||[[All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|AIADMK]]||{{Won}}||47.29||N. S. Selvaraj||[[Indian National Congress|INC]]||41.20
|-
|[[1989 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election]]||[[Sedapatti Assembly constituency|Sedapatti]]||[[All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|AIADMK]]||{{Lost}}||24.56||A. Athiyaman||[[Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|DMK]]||31.57
|-
|[[1991 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election]]||[[Sedapatti Assembly constituency|Sedapatti]]||[[All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|AIADMK]]||{{Won}}||58.85||A. Athiyaman||[[Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|DMK]]||31.49
|-
|[[1996 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election]]||[[Sedapatti Assembly constituency|Sedapatti]]||[[All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|AIADMK]]||{{Lost}}||39.33||[[G. Thalapathi]]||[[Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|DMK]]||49.69
|}
===Lok Sabha Elections===
{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Elections
!Constituency
!Party
!Result
!Vote percentage
!Opposition Candidate
!Opposition Party
!Opposition vote percentage
|-
|[[1989 Indian general election]]||[[Periyakulam Lok Sabha constituency|Periyakulam]]||[[All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|AIADMK]]||{{Won}}||60.7||A.K.Cumbum Mahindran||[[Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|DMK]]||27.3
|-
|[[1998 Indian general election]]||[[Periyakulam Lok Sabha constituency|Periyakulam]]||[[All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|AIADMK]]||{{Won}}||51.8||R.Gandhimathy||[[Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|DMK]]||40.4
|}
==Personal life==
M. Manimaran, younger son of Sedapatti Muthiah is currently the Secretary of Madurai South District, DMK party. Sedapatti Muthiah's popularity and Manimaran's recent performance along with the larger families in nearby villages and Mukkulathor community has gained him fame. He also contested from [[Thirupparankundram]] constituency in 2016 State Elections but lost.<ref name="tamilnadu_speakerslist">{{cite web|title=Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly: Details of terms of successive Legislative Assemblies constituted under the Constitution of India|publisher=Government of India|url=http://legislativebodiesinindia.nic.in/STATISTICAL/tamilnadu.htm|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090409221838/http://legislativebodiesinindia.nic.in/STATISTICAL/tamilnadu.htm|archivedate=9 April 2009|df=dmy-all}}</ref>
He died in [[Madurai]] on 21 September 2022, at the age of 76.<ref>{{cite news|title=Former Speaker Sedapatti Muthiah passed away|url=https://pipanews.com/former-speaker-sedapatti-muthiah-passed-away-pipa-news/|website=Pipa News|accessdate = 21 September 2022}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{s-start}}
{{succession box|title=Member of Indian Parliament (Lok Sabha) for Periyakulam|before=[[P. Selvendran]]|after=[[R. Ramasamy]]|years=1989-1991}}
{{succession box|title=Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly|before=[[M. Tamilkudimagan]]|after=[[P. T. R. Palanivel Rajan]]|years=1991-1996}}
{{succession box|title=Member of Indian Parliament (Lok Sabha) for Periyakulam|before=[[R. Gnanagurusamy]]|after=[[T. T. V. Dhinakaran]]|years=1998-1999}}
{{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muthiah, Sedapatti}}
[[Category:1945 births]]
[[Category:2022 deaths]]
[[Category:Union ministers from Tamil Nadu]]
[[Category:Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam politicians]]
[[Category:Speakers of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly]]
[[Category:India MPs 1989–1991]]
[[Category:India MPs 1998–1999]]
[[Category:Lok Sabha members from Tamil Nadu]]
[[Category:People from Theni district]]
[[Category:Tamil Nadu MLAs 1991–1996]]
[[Category:Tamil Nadu MLAs 1985–1989]]