S. S. Sivasankar is an Indian politician and writer from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). He has represented

Andimadam Andimadam is a town in Tamil Nadu. It is one of the blocks in the Ariyalur district and Taluk (from 16-09-2016) in the Ariyalur district "Land Of Cement", Tamil Nadu, India. It has three State Highways running across. Demographics As per the ...

(2006–11), and Kunnam (2011–16; 2021-) constituencies in Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. From 7 May 2021 to 29 March 2022, he served as Minister for the Welfare of Backward, Most Backward and Denotified Communities in the Council of Ministers under M.K. Stalin. On 29 March 2022, he assumed charge as the State's

Minister for Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government agen ...

. Sivasankar has authored three books: ''Makkaludan En Anubavangal'' (or ''Makkalodu Naan'') (2015), ''Chozhan Raja Prapthi'' (2019), and ''Thozhar Chozhan'' (2019).

Early life

Sivasankar was born on 24 March 1969 in the village of Devanur near

in present-day Ariyalur district, Tamil Nadu. His father S. Sivasubramanian was an ardent supporter of the

Dravidian movement The Dravidian movement in British India started with the formation of the Justice Party on 20 November 1916 in Victoria Public Hall in Madras by C. Natesa Mudaliar along with T. M. Nair and P. Theagaraya Chetty as a result of a series of non- ...

and was instrumental in strengthening the DMK in the district. Sivasankar's mother is Sivarajeshwari. After attending Andimadam Government School, Sivasankar studied Bachelor of Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at

Annamalai University , logo = CampusmapofAU.jpg , image = Annamalai University logo.png , image_size = 225px , motto = "With Courage and Faith" , established = , type ...

. After graduating in 1991, he worked for a private company in Bangalore until 1993.

Politics

Beginning and party posts

Sivasankar's political career began when he participated in an Anti-Hindi conference organized by the DMK in Tiruchirappalli in December 1978. He entered full-time politics in 1993, and was elected as the DMK Secretary of the Andimadam Union in 1999. In 2001, he was appointed DMK Secretary of the newly created Ariyalur district. Then, he once again became the District Secretary for Ariyalur and is presently in that post.

Civic Body Member (1996-2006)

From 1996 to 2001, Sivasankar served as Deputy President of Perambalur

District Panchayat The Zila Panchayat or District Development Council or Mandal Parishad or District Panchayat is the third tier of the Panchayati Raj system and functions at the district levels in all states. A Zila Parishad is an elected body. Block Pramukh of ...

. Then he served as a member of Ariyalur District Panchayat till 2006.

Member of Legislative Assembly (2006-16 ; 2021-)

In the

2006 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election The thirteenth legislative assembly election, of Tamil Nadu was held on 8 May 2006. It was held for all 234 constituencies to elect the government in the state for the following five years. The votes were counted three days later on 11 May 2006 ...

, Sivasankar successfully contested in his home constituency of

. In the 2011 Assembly election, he won from Kunnam. On 31 January 2014, he was suspended for an entire assembly session for tearing up a copy of the customary speech by

Konijeti Rosaiah Konijeti Rosaiah (4 July 1933 – 4 December 2021) was an Indian politician who served as the List of chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, 15th chief minister of United Andhra Pradesh from 2009 to 2010. He also served as the Governor of Karnataka ...

, then

Governor of Tamil Nadu The governor of Tamil Nadu is the head of state of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The governors have similar powers and functions at the state level as those of the president of India at central level. They exist in the state appointed by th ...

. In the

2016 Assembly election Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film dir ...

, Sivasankar contested from Ariyalur constituency and lost by 2,621 votes. In the 2021 Assembly election, he re-contested in Kunnam and won by 6,329 votes.

Ministership (2021-)

Following the victory of the DMK alliance in the 2021 election, Sivasankar was inducted into the

M. K. Stalin ministry M. K. Stalin ministry, is the Council of Ministers headed by M. K. Stalin that was formed after the DMK won the 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly elections. The new assembly formed was 16th Tamil Nadu Assembly. The Council assumed office o ...

as Minister for the Welfare of Backward, Most Backward and Denotified Communities. On 29 March 2022, his portfolio was transferred to Raja Kannappan and he in turn replaced the latter as

Works

Personal life

Sivasankar's residence is in Rajaji Nagar, Ariyalur. His wife Gayathridevi is a physician hailing from

Papanasam Papanasam is a panchayat town in Thanjavur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located from Thanjavur and from Kumbakonam. The name literally translates to "Destruction of Sins" in the Tamil language. It is the suburban region ...

( Thanjavur district). The couple has two sons: Sivasaran and Sivasurya.

Media appearance

Sivasankar was one of the participants in Season 14 episode 21 of the television show

Neeya Naana Zee Bangla is an Indian general entertainment pay television channel broadcasting in the Bengali language. It is owned by the Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It is the first Bengali-language satellite television channel in India, officially com ...

hosted by

Gopinath Chandran Gopinath Chandran is an Indian television Anchor, radio jockey, journalist, reporter, news presenter/moderator, entrepreneur, and a writer, currently featured on the STAR Vijay debate show ''Neeya Naana''. He is popularly known as "Neeya Naana G ...

on Vijay TV. In this episode (titled "Gopinath discusses Tamil Nadu") that aired on 10 February 2013, a student presented her position against

reservation __NOTOC__ Reservation may refer to: Places Types of places: * Indian reservation, in the United States * Military base, often called reservations * Nature reserve Government and law * Reservation (law), a caveat to a treaty * Reservation in India, ...

, citing 'arbitrary' caste-based concessions. In reply, Sivasankar famously gave an explanation:

Notes

External links

Sivasankar

Sivasankar.S.S

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sivasankar, S. S. 1969 births Living people People from Ariyalur district Indian Tamil people Dravidian movement Tamil writers Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam politicians Tamil Nadu ministers Tamil Nadu MLAs 2006–2011 Tamil Nadu MLAs 2011–2016 Tamil Nadu MLAs 2021–2026