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 considered by some as his political heir. He later split from Periyar's Dravidar Kazhagam to form Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) along with C. N. Annadurai. In spite of being one of the founders of DMK He is a former Member of Parliament from the constituency of Namakkal.

He belonged to a politically active family. He was nephew of Periyar and his father was an active politician himself. He is also the father of other prominent politicians of Tamil Nadu, namely, E. V. K. S. Elangovan and Iniyan Sampath and his wife Sulochana Sampath too was in active politics, holding high ranks within the Tamil Nadu government. She died in June 2015, aged 86.

Entry into politics

He was attracted to Periyar's self-respect movement since early days of his life. and encouraging backward castes to have self-respect in the context of a caste based society that considered them to be a lower end of the hierarchy. As a student of the Intermediate Course in Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai, he participated in the programmes and agitations of DK. In the year 1944 he was declared as the Commander-in-chief of the Black Shirt Brigade of Periyar's movement. The DMK picked up the Tamil Nationalistic ideologies from its parent organisation but upheld the principles of democratic party organisation. However, faced with the reality of an independent India setting in motion the democratic process under a new Constitution, DMK preferred to keep the separatist issue on the backburner.

Breakaway from DMK In 1961 along with Tamil poet Kannadasan and Pazha Nedumaran he found a new party Tamil National Party. and also to the differences in DMK's call for independent nation of Dravida Nadu. Later one more founder members of DMK, actor Sivaji Ganesan after his feud with the DMK leadership and calling it a glamour party.