Vazhappady Koothappadayachi Ramamurthy or Vazhapadi Koothappadayachi Ramamoorthy (18 January 1940 – 27 October 2002) was an Indian trade unionist and politician.

Political career

He was an ardent follower of the late

K Kamaraj Kumaraswami Kamaraj (15 July 1903 – 2 October 1975), popularly known as Kamarajar was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the Chief Minister of Madras from 13 April 1954 to 2 October 1963. He also served as the pr ...

and

E. V. K. Sampath Erode Venkatappa Krishnasamy Sampath ( – 23 February 1977), usually referred to as ''E. V. K. Sampath'' was a prominent politician from Tamil Nadu, India. He was an advocate of the Dravidian Movement of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy and was conside ...

. He belonged to the

Vanniyar The Vanniyar, formerly known as the Palli, are a community or '' jāti'' found in the northern part of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The Vanniyars were historically considered a lower caste, although some were peasant-warriors in the 14th ...

community. He served as the President of

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) is the wing of Indian National Congress serving in Tamil Nadu. It is responsible for organizing and coordinating the party's activities and campaigns within the state, as well as selecting candidates for loca ...

From 1989 to 1995, he was the Youth Congress President of

Salem, Tamil Nadu Salem () is a major city in Salem district, located on the banks of the Thirumanimutharu river in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu surrounded by mountains. Salem is the List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, fifth largest urban agglomerati ...

. Ramamurthy was elected as a member of the Lok Sabha six times and was defeated twice, in 1996 and 1999. He was involved with the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...

and served as minister of state for Labour with independent charge in the Congress government led by

P. V. Narasimha Rao Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (28 June 1921 – 23 December 2004) was an Indian independence activist, lawyer, and statesman from the Indian National Congress who served as the prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996. He was the first p ...

for a brief period in 1991. He quit his ministerial post on the Cauvery issue. He was president of the TNCC for six years before being replaced in 1996 when he formed the

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 ...

unit of the Tiwari Congress. Ramamurthy went back to the Congress but left that party again to form

Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress Vazhappady Koothappadayachi Ramamurthy or Vazhapadi Koothappadayachi Ramamoorthy (18 January 1940 – 27 October 2002) was an Indian trade unionist and politician. Political career He was an ardent follower of the late K Kamaraj and E. V. K. ...

(TRC). He was part of

NDA NDA may stand for: Military * National Defence Academy (disambiguation) * National Defence Act, legislation for organizing and funding Canada's military * Naval Defence Act (disambiguation) * Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group in Nigeria's ...

and become Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas. With the creation of the TRC, he subsequently announced that it would have an alliance with

AIADMK The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK, also abbreviated as ADMK), also shortened to Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory ...

in the upcoming

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 ...

election. A few days later,

J. 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 ...

announced that TRC was entering the AIADMK-led front, although she denied having engineered the split in the Congress Party. In January 2002, after eight years, Ramamurthy merged TRC with Congress.

Trade Union

Ramamurthy was associated with various trade unions and workers' organizations, serving as honorary president of INTUC Tamil Nadu, Founder-President of the International Institute for Non-aligned Studies, Vice-President of INTUC, Tamil Nadu, and founding member and president of Indian National Rural Labour Federation INRLF, a labour union formed for agricultural and unorganized rural workers.

Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress

Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress was a regional

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

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. TRC was formed when Vazhapadi Ramamurthy split from the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

. TRC merged with Congress in 2002.

Electoral records

He was Member of Parliament elected from

. He was elected to the

as an

candidate from Dharmapuri constituency in

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

election and from Krishnagiri constituency in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

and

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

elections. He was elected from Krishnagiri constituency as an

Indian National Congress (Indira) The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

candidate in

election. He was elected from Salem constituency as an Independent candidate in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

election.

Parliament Committees

1977-79 Member, Committee on Papers Laid on the Table; Member, Business Advisory Committee; Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Labour; Deputy Chief Whip, Congress Parliamentary Party, (Indira) .P.P.(I) 1980 Member, Committee on Public Undertakings; Member, Business Advisory Committee; Member, Committee on Privileges; Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Labour 1985-87 Chairman, Committee on Public Undertakings;

Committee on Public Undertakings The Committee on Public Undertakings (COPU) is one of three financial standing committees within the Parliament of India, composed of selected members of Parliament with the stated purpose of examining the reports and accounts of public sector u ...

1986-89 Member, Committee on Public Accounts; Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Labor 1990 Member, Committee of Privileges, Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Labor and Welfare

Personal life

His wife, R Kalaimani, was a retired teacher, and they shared two sons and a daughter. His eldest son, Vazhapadi Rama Suganthan, is an AICC member, INRLF National General Secretary and Tamilnadu State President.He is also Chairman of Rajiv Gandhi Vazhapadi K Ramamurthy Charitable trust, while his younger son, Vazhapadi R Karnan, is General Secretary of INRLF Tamil Nadu state. Ramamurthy died in Chennai on 27 October 2002.

Political career

Trade Union

Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress

Electoral records

Parliament Committees

Personal life

See also

References

Further reading