E Madhusudhanan, presidium chairman of the AIADMK passed away on Thursday at a corporate hospital in Chennai. He was 79 and was the minister of textiles in the AIADMK Government headed by late J Jayalaliuthaa during 1991-1996. Madhusudhanan was ailing for some time and had been undergoing treatment for multi-organ failure.
Madhusudhanan, a trusted aide of party founder M G Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa, was appointed party presidium chairman in 2007. He was one of the senior leaders of the party who cast his lot with V K Sasikala, immediately after the demise of Jayalalithaa. Madhusudhanan had rushed to Veda Nilayam once the mourning period after Jayalalithaa’s passing away was over and pleaded with Sasikala to take over the reigns of the AIADMK. The meeting that appointed Sasikala as acting general secretary was presided over by him.
But following the resignation of the then chief minister O Panneerselvam and his expulsion from the AIADMK, Madhusudhanan joined the former’s camp and within months expelled Sasikala and her cartel from the party. Though the AIADMK had fielded him as the party candidate against TTV Dhinakaran in the by-poll held from R K Nagar in 2017, he lost the poll.