S.D. Somasundaram had a roller-coaster ride in AIADMK

AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran had his share of critics during his lifetime. S.D. Somasundaram (1923-2001), whose birth centenary was celebrated in Chennai on Friday, was different from others as no other leader had opposed MGR as stoutly as he did.

AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran had his share of critics during his lifetime. S.D. Somasundaram (1923-2001), whose birth centenary was celebrated in Chennai on Friday, was different from others as no other leader had opposed MGR as stoutly as he did.

Capturing this aspect, biographer R. Kannan in his work MGR: A Life stated that “no one had mounted a challenge before to MGR’s authority as SDS had and no one had accused him of corruption so openly.” But Somasundaram, also called SDS, went a step further. He floated a party — Namadhu Kazhagam — and fielded candidates in 150 Assembly constituencies and 15 Lok Sabha constituencies in 1984. The party’s performance was disastrous. “The most humiliating was that SDS himself lost deposit in his home constituency [of Pattukottai, from where he was elected in 1980 on the AIADMK ticket],” according to a news item published by The Hindu on November 17, 1986, after he returned to the AIADMK.

An engineering graduate from Annamalai University, SDS, who was born on February 25, 1923, at Sendangadu of Pattukottai in Thanjavur district, was drawn to politics in his student days — initially identifying himself with the Dravida Kazhagam and later with the DMK. He was the general secretary of the students’ wing of the DMK when Annadurai was the party chief.

In the 1967 Lok Sabha election, SDS shot into fame by defeating the then State Industries Minister, R. Venkataraman, in Thanjavur. He was elected to the House on two more occasions. A few weeks after MGR founded the AIADMK in October 1972, SDS was the first DMK MP to join him. In May 1978, he became a Minister in the first AIADMK Ministry and held the portfolios of Revenue and Commercial Taxes for six years. In 1984, he fell out with the then Chief Minister over a number of matters, including the kind of importance attached in the party to Jayalalithaa, then an MP.

On the Sri Lankan Tamil question, he was for stronger measures against the Jayawardene regime. In September 1984, he was dismissed from the Cabinet and expelled from the AIADMK. After running Namadhu Kazhagam for over two years, he returned to the AIADMK in November 1986.

Recalling the relationship between MGR and SDS, H.V. Hande, who served as Health Minister (1980-86) in the MGR’s Cabinet, said, “Like any political people, they [MGR and SDS] fell apart and came together again. Political contradictions do exist.” SDS’ another colleague, C. Ponnaiyan, who held the portfolios of Transport, Law and Education during 1977-1987, asserted that the two leaders respected each other’s values. “Just as SDS liked MGR’s humane approach, the latter was appreciative of the former for integrity, honesty and probity in public life,” Mr. Ponnaiyan pointed out.