A. C. Shanmugam is the founder and president of the New Justice Party, a political party of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. A C Shanmugam was born in a Tuluva Vellala (Agamudaya Mudaliar) family. He began his political career as an

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK) is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is a Dravidian party founded by the former chief ...

(AIADMK) politician, when in 1984, he won the Parliament Election with 52.93% of votes for AIADMK. Subsequently, he held the posts of MP and

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

, before founding the New Justice Party. In 2014, as a

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

candidate, he came runner-up when he contested elections in Vellore Lok Sabha. Later, he returned to AIADMK. He stood from the

Vellore Vellore (English: ), also spelt as Velur (), is a city and the administrative headquarters of Vellore district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Palar River in the northeastern part of Tamil Nadu and is separa ...

Lok Sabha constituency in 2019 on a Pudhiya Needhi Katchi ticket. He is also the founder and chancellor of Dr. M.G.R. Educational and Research Institute, Rajarajeswari Group of Institutions, and ACS group of institutions in Arani. He works for the upliftment of

Mudaliyar Thuluva Vellalar (Thondamandala Tuluva Vellalar), also known as Agamudaya Mudaliars and Arcot Mudaliars, is a caste found in northern Tamil Nadu, southern Andhra Pradesh and southern Karnataka, India. They were originally significant lando ...

s. He is ardent fan of

M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist, and filmmaker who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987 ...

. Er. A.C.S. Arunkumar, son of Dr. Shanmugam is the youngest Pro Chancellor of the Deemed University. Life Member - Indian Society for Technical Education

Needhi Katchi

Needhi Katchi, formerly Puthiya Needhi Katchi (

translation Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

: ''New Justice Party''), is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

, headed by A.C. Shanmugam, a former

AIADMK The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK) is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is a Dravidian party founded by the former chief mini ...

member. The party was started just before the 2001 Tamil Nadu assembly election. The leader of the party claims to represent

Mudaliar Mudaliar (alternatively spelled: Muthaliar, Mudali, Muthali, or Moodley ) is a Tamil title and surname. As title, it was historically given to high-ranking military officers and their descendants. The surname is most prevalent among Tamils from Tam ...

s and Pillaimars castes significantly present from all over Tamilnadu. In September 2009, the party renamed itself as Needhi Katchi by dropping the ''pudhiya'' (lit. new) prefix. As of 2022, the party is still led by A. C. Shanmugam, and continues to ally with larger parties.

Needhi Katchi

References

Further reading