R. Kamaraj (born 25 June 1960) is an Indian politician from the

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 ...

(AIADMK) party. He has been a member of 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 Nannilam constituency since 2011 and is the Minister for Food of the

Government of Tamil Nadu The Government of Tamil Nadu () is the administrative body responsible for the governance of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Chennai is the capital of the state and houses the state executive, legislature and head of judiciary. Under the Const ...

. Prior to his state assembly role, he represented

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 ...

as a member of

Parliament of India The Parliament of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of India, Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok ...

in the

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

, the upper house of the Indian Parliament. Kamaraj was elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly as an AIADMK candidate from the Nannilam constituency in the 2011 state assembly elections. Kamaraj replaced Budhichandhiran as Minister for Food in the Government of Tamil Nadu in November 2011, being appointed in the third cabinet reshuffle in a five-month period by

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016), popularly known as Amma, was an Indian actress, politician, and philanthropist who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years between 1991 and 2016. She ...

. In January 2015, Kamaraj became Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments as well as Minister of Food. This additional responsibility was transferred from the critically ill P. Chendur Pandian. In April 2017, Kamaraj was one of three AIADMK ministers against whom police filed a First Information Report after allegations of obstructing officials who were conducting raids related to income tax. He and Udumalai K. Radhakrishnan were alleged to have done so at the house of the Minister for Health, C. Vijayabhaskar. The following month, the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...

criticised the Government of Tamil Nadu for not investigating a case relating to land fraud in which Kamaraj was alleged to be involved.

Personal life

Kamaraj was born in

Mannargudi Mannargudi () is a Municipality in Thiruvarur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of the Mannargudi Taluk, Mannargudi taluk. The town is located at a distance of from the district headquarters Thiruvarur, 12 ...

on 25 June 1960. He has an MA degree and is married with two children.

References

1960 births Rajya Sabha members from Tamil Nadu All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam politicians Living people State cabinet ministers of Tamil Nadu People from Tiruvarur district Tamil Nadu MLAs 2011–2016 Tamil Nadu MLAs 2016–2021 Tamil Nadu MLAs 2021–2026 {{AIADMK-politician-stub