Upset over being denied a ticket to contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Erode sitting MP A. Ganeshamoorthy attempted suicide on Sunday by consuming poison. Ganeshamoorthy, who had consumed Sulfate, an insecticide, was rushed to the hospital in Erode by his family members.
Later, he was moved to a private hospital in Coimbatore. His condition is said to be critical. He had started vomiting on Sunday after consuming Sulfate mixed with water after which he was rushed to the hospital.
Ganeshamoorthy, who won from the Erode constituency on DMK’s ‘rising sun’ symbol, was denied a ticket by the MDMK leadership. Vaiko’s MDMK which was allotted one Lok Sabha constituency in the DMK-led INDIA bloc, chose to contest from Tiruchirappalli constituency. Vaiko’s son Durai Vaiko is contesting from Trichy.
76-year-old Ganeshamoorthy, who is known to be one of the loyalists of Vaiko, is a veteran of the Dravidian movement. Hailing from West Tamil Nadu, Ganeshamoorthy is a law graduate. Drawn towards the DMK during his school days, he was the joint organiser of DMK’s student's wing in Erode. In 1984 he was appointed as the Erode district secretary of the DMK student wing. In 1989 he won on a DMK ticket from the Modakurichi assembly constituency. Later, when Vaiko split the party and walked out to launch his own Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) in 1996, Ganeshamoorthy joined him.
Later, in 1998 and in 2009, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Erode on an MDMK ticket. In 2014 he lost the Erode constituency to AIADMK. In 2019, he won from Erode on a DMK ticket as he contested in the ‘rising sun’ symbol. When the seat-sharing talks were underway, sources in MDMK said that Ganeshamoorthy was renominated.
Though it is rumoured that Ganeshmoorthy took the extreme step because he wasn’t renominated, sources in the MDMK say that he consumed poison due to family issues. While his wife Balamani passed away earlier, sources say the issues in the extended family led to his untoward decision.
