M. Thambi Durai

Munisamy Thambi Durai (born 15 March 1947) is an Indian politician from Tamil Nadu who served as the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha and leader of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament. He currently serves as a Rajya Sabha member from Tamil Nadu. He had served as the Cabinet Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs and as the Minister of State of Surface Transport from March 1998 to April 1999. He had also served as the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1985 to 1989.

Political career Thambi Durai started his political career as a youth worker and student activist of the erstwhile united DMK in 1965 at the age of 18, when he was in the first year as a student of Madras Christian College. He participated in the anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 and courted arrest. He worked his way up in the Party as a hard working organizer, starting as a worker at the booth level for Municipal and Legislative Assembly polls in 1967 and 1971 for the DMK, and also as an Agitprop coordinator in universities and colleges. He was among the founding-members and first generation of the AIADMK in 1972 when the party split with M.G. Ramachandran. He became an MLA from Erode in 1977, and was first elected as a Member of Parliament to the 8th Lok Sabha in 1984 from Dharmapuri and was subsequently elected to the 9th, 12th, 15th and 16th Lok Sabha from Karur. He was also elected to the Tamil Nadu assembly in the 2001 and 2006 elections from Bargur Assembly constituency. He also served as minister of Education, Technical Education, Science and Technology, Sports and Youth Welfare, Archeology, Tamil Development and Tamil Culture, Indian Overseas, Refugees and Evacuees. He was in the portfolio during Jayalaithaa 2001 cabinet.

Thambidurai contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Karur Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu and was subsequently elected as a member of the Indian Parliament. He had been serving as the leader of AIADMK in the Lok Sabha since 2009. He lost in the general elections in 2019 to Jothimani.

He was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2020 and subsequently re-elected in 2026.

Elections Contested Lok Sabha Year ConstituencyParty Votes % OpponentOpponent Party Opponent Votes % Result Margin % 1984 Dharmapuri 3,33,427 63.33 Parvathi Krishnan 1,82,175 34.6 1,51,252 28.73 1989Karur 4,84,492 65.6 K. C. Palanisamy 2,45,741 33.27 2,38,751 32.33 1996 2,41,556 33.08K. Natrayan 4,09,830 56.12 -1,68,274 -23.04 1998 3,27,480 50.39 2,83,807 43.67 43,673 6.72 2009 3,80,542 46.21 K. C. Palanisamy 3,33,288 40.48 47,254 5.73 2014 5,40,722 52.36 M. Chinnasamy 3,45,475 33.45 1,95,247 18.91 2019 2,75,151 25.06 S. Jothimani 6,95,697 63.36 -4,20,546 -38.3

Rajya Sabha

Personal life Dr.M.Thambidurai born in Sinthagampalli village of krishnagiri district Tamil Nadu belongs to a virakodi vellala Community which is a majority in some of the Districts of Tamil Nadu. He is member of the Trust of Adhiyamaan Educational and Research Institutions, Chennai; St.Peter's Institute of Higher Education and Research Chennai; Lakshmi Sarawathi Educational Trust, Chennai; Kovai Kalaimagal Educational Trust which is managed by his wife Dr. T. Bhanumathi. He has two daughters .

Nickname M. Thamidurai also has a nickname, known to be, "Kriblomus", Thambidurai was known to be called this nickname as a kid by his brothers and he also was known to be a very large jokester.