The sprawling ancient bungalow near the most popular Vadamalaiyan hospital in Madurai has once again started drawing tens and hundreds of visitors, including politicians and bureaucrats, each day—almost after a decade. Trees stand tall and the chirping of the birds adds vigour to the slothful atmosphere. Standing in small groups, at least two dozen men are seen talking to one another with their hands folded at the back. The group immediately moves forward to the king-size living room as a fair-skinned short stout young man with a tilak on his forehead walks out with folded hands, greeting the visitors saying “vanakkam”. He lends his ears to hear from them about the next campaign spot. “Ask the ward secretary about the exact area. Let there not be any confusion,” he tells them in Tamil peppered with American accent English words.
PTRP Thiagarajan, a former Lehman banker, is a new face in the DMK, but not a political novice. Electoral politics comes easy for him unlike any other first-time contestant in the fray. Son of PTR Palanivelrajan, a towering leader in the DMK and a known believer in a party of rationalists and atheists, Thiagarajan is a straight forward politician. Contesting from Madurai central constituency—just a few kilometers from the Thirumangalam constituency, which is popularly known for the cash for votes formula— Thiagarajan has, however, vowed not to bribe the voters.
“I will not give you money. If you feel, I can serve you best as your elected representative,” he tells the voters. Unlike others, he is quite perfect in handling the election expenses. He doesn’t spend for votes. As an investment banker who was shuttling between the USA, Singapore and India for over 20 years, Thiagarajan knows the art of handling people. Combined with his father’s illustrious leadership qualities and his charisma, PTRP—as he is popularly known—has set his foot in this election with much confidence.
An engineering graduate from National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi, Thiagarajan pursued his post-graduate degree and research in the New York State University. After working in the USA for several years, he was part of the Standard Chartered Bank as its managing director of Global Capital Markets and then went on to serve as the senior managing director of Global Foreign Exchange and Money Markets of the SCB, Singapore. As an academic, his research work has found place in various journals and books. His presentations at scientific conferences in the US, Europe and Asian countries have made him stand high above every contestant in this state elections.
But ask him how these qualifications and experience would help his victory, and he has an immediate answer, “I am not here to promise, win and get away. My father was a legendary figure and he had contributed in a big way to Madurai’s infrastructure development. Today, 10 years after my father died, I can witness how the city is lacking basic amenities. My promise is to build the city’s infrastructure and solve its water woos.”
Thiagrajan is not that typical politician who wants to be in power just because he hails from a family with rich history and its steadfast association with the Dravidian movement. His father was a towering leader in the DMK and had served as a minister and as the speaker of the state assembly during his 40 years of public service. His grandfather Ponnambalam Thiagarajan, popularly known as PT Rajan, had served as the chief minister of Madras Presidency in 1936.
Thiagarajan, however, doesn’t like talking about dynasty politics. He says, “That my father and grandfather were successful in their public life is not the reason why I have come in.” For him it is legacy combined with his qualifications and modernity.
In fact, Thiagarajan’s nomination as the DMK candidate did not come easy. In 2006, when his father passed away, party supremo M. Karunanidhi offered him the ticket, asking him to contest the byelections. But he refused because of his job abroad. In 2011, when things were fine, Thiagarajan could not leave his American wife as the couple was expecting their second son.
Things did not come in favour of him since then as Madurai came under the control of the then DMK strong man, M.K. Alagiri. But now Thiagarajan is M.K. Stalin’s man and Alagiri is out of the party itself. If you ask him about Alagiri and his style of controlling things, Thiagarajan will dismiss it with a shrug. “I don’t want to comment on this. I am new to the party and this movement. At a personal level I maintain a cordial relationship,” he says.
Born into a family of strong believers, he is an ardent devotee of Lord Meenakshi like his father. He goes to the most famous Meenkashi temple in his city almost every day with his wife and two sons. They follow the path taken by their father. Inside the temple, they sing the hymns praising Meenakshi and Lord Shiva as his father would do.
Ever since his father contested the elections from the same Madurai central constituency in 1996, Thiagarajan has learnt his lessons in politics intact. He still remembers every party worker who used to be with his father, and doesn’t want to betray them now. “They are still with me now. They have grown 20 years older, but their faces and style of working remain the same,” he points out.
“In the past, development works in the temple city took place only during M. Karunanidhi’s regime. When my father was the Assembly Speaker, he was able to understand the problems of common man and he built bridges and the Ring Road. I, too, will carry forward the legacy, if elected,” he says.
On dynasty politics, he has a long note written with the help of one of his doctor cousins in Boston. “All the four generations of Thiagarajan’s family, the individuals of this family first established themselves in other professions, and gained wide experience in the solution of societal problems. Both Thamizhavel P. T. Rajan, and P.T.R. Palanivel Rajan were eminent barristers who understood law-making, jurisprudence, and the challenges to social justice/equity. They freed Hindu religious practices from exclusionary forces and caste prejudices, legislated for the upliftment of women and backward sections of society, and made lasting strides in building the infrastructure of the Presidency, the State, and Madurai City. The present candidate Dr. P. Thiagarajan has wide experience of macro-financial and micro-financial principles, and the principles of management of large corporations, and can bring unique perspectives to effective governance, and the abundant economic growth of the state and Madurai City,” reads the note.