Former Tamil Nadu assembly speaker Sedapatti R Muthiah dead

CHENNAI: Former Tamil Nadu legislative assembly speaker and former Union minister Sedapatti R Muthiah, 76, died in a private hospital in Madurai on Wednesday.One of the founding members of the AIADMK, Muthiah played a key role until 1999 when he was expelled from the party by then general secretary J Jayalalithaa.
Sedapattiar, as he was fondly known in political circles, was born in Muthappanpatti village in Madurai district on October 4, 1945.Though his dream was to pursue engineering, he moved to politics.
Muthiah joined politics as a student leader of the DMK and later when M G Ramachandran founded the AIADMK, he joined the new party. Muthiah won from Sedapatti assembly constituency four times and was made the speaker of the legislative assembly during the AIADMK's tenure from 1991 to 1996. He was elected to Parliament twice from Periyakulam constituency. He served as Union minister for surface transport in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet. A notable event during his tenure as speaker was his action of declaring MLAs G Vishwanathan and Azhagu Thirunavukkarasu as unattached members. The two MLAs were expelled from AIADMK in January 1994 for 'anti-party' activities.
After his expulsion from AIADMK, Muthiah kept away from politics for some time before joining the DMK and getting his first official posting in the party in 2008. TN chief minister M K Stalin, and governor RN Ravi condoled Muthiah's death.