K. Krishnasamy (born 3 April 1952) is an Indian physician, social worker and politician who was a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several nation ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. He founded the Puthiya Tamilagam party in 1999 and was elected to the

Tamil Nadu legislative assembly The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It has a strength of 234 members, all of whom are democratically elected using the first-past-the-post system. The presiding office ...

from Ottapidaram constituency in 1996 election and as Puthiya Tamilagam candidate in 2011

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

with

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK, also abbreviated as ADMK), also shortened to Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, is an Indian Regionalism (politics), regional political party with great influence in the Federated state, sta ...

party.

Political views

Krishnasamy on 2019, supported the three language policy in Tamil Nadu and

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

as a third language for Tamil students. Speaking at a function in Paramakudi in 2019 Krishnasamy said to his party youngsters, "Even if women of a different caste loves you, you should stay away. We have to move forward". He supported NEET for Tamil Nadu in August 2017 in a demonstration when AIADMK, DMK and many other parties opposed it. Former CPI(M) legislator K. Balabharathi accused him of hypocrisy, recalling that in 2011, the Krishnasamy had thanked then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for recommending a medical college seat for his daughter. Krishnaswamy has supported many policies and positions espoused by the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

(BJP). He has insisted that the Hindu Nationalist

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS,, ) is an Indian right-wing politics, right-wing, Hindutva, Hindu nationalist volunteer paramilitary organisation. It is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar ( ...

(RSS) is a nationalist organisation and not a communal organization. He also claimed that there is no evidence the BJP government is trying to impose Hindi across India. His critics alleged that Krishnaswamy is appeasing the BJP and the RSS for personal gain.

Political career

He founded Puthiya Tamilagam, a political party based in

, India. The Puthiya Tamilagam contested the 1999

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

elections and ten seats in the 2001 state assembly elections, the latter in alliance with the DMK. It won no seats in either case. InIn the 2009 elections to the Lok Sabha, K. Krishnasamy lost to P. Lingam of CPI. For the 2011 state elections, it allied with the

party and won two seats: K. Krishnasamy secured 71,330 votes in Ottapidaram constituency and A. Ramaswamy secured 75,124 votes in Nilakkottai constituency. During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections Puthiya Tamilagam joined with the DMK as part of the Democratic Progressive Alliance. It contested just the Tenkasi constituency, where Krishnasamy lost by 161,774 votes to the AIADMK candidate, M. Vansanthi. The Puthiya Tamilagam allied with the DMK for the 2016 state assembly elections and contested the seats of Ottapidaram,

Srivilliputhur Srivilliputhur is a municipality in Virudhunagar district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu. As of 2011, the town had a population of 75,396. The most important landmark of Thiruvilliputhur is 11-tiered tower st ...

, Krishnarajapuram and Vasudevanallur. Krishnasamy lost to Sundarraj of the AIADMK by 493 votes in Ottapidaram. In 2019, Lok Sabha election Puthiya Tamilagam party joined the AIADMK-BJP-PMK alliance in Tamil Nadu as part of the

National Democratic Alliance The National Democratic Alliance (NDA; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Rāṣṭrīya Lokatāntrik Gaṭhabandhan'') is an Indian big tent Political group, multi-party political alliance, led by the country's biggest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Pa ...

. Puthiya Tamilagam was allocated one constituency to contest, with Krishnasamy standing in Tenkasi for the sixth time.

Elections contested and positions held

Tamil Nadu State Legislative Assembly Elections Contested

Lok Sabha Elections Contested

Controversy

When Krishnaswamy was asked at a press conference in May 2019 about his stance in the

Bhartiya Janata Party 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. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Since 2014, ...

's projects, including NEET and

hydrocarbon exploration Hydrocarbon exploration (or oil and gas exploration) is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for hydrocarbon deposits, particularly petroleum and natural gas, in the Earth's crust using petroleum geology. Exploration methods ...

and the explanation for his failure in Tenkasi elections, Krishnaswamy claimed that the journalist who asked the question had further intentions and proceeded on to ask him what caste the journalist belonged to. When asked why the journalist's caste was discussed when he was just doing his job of posing questions, Krishnasamy said, "''The reporter kept repeating the same question. What's wrong with asking for one's caste? Is there no caste among all of you?'' "This led to a heated debate between him and the mediapersons, causing a controversy.

References

External links

Puthiya Tamilagam Party
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krishnasamy, K. 1954 births Living people Tamil Nadu MLAs 1996–2001 Tamil Nadu MLAs 2011–2016 Janata Party politicians People from Tiruppur district Puthiya Tamilagam politicians