Murali Pillai

Early life and education Pillai was born on 30 October 1967 to P. Kunjan Pillai and Vasanthi Ramadass. The elder Pillai was a trade unionist who was detained from 1963 to 1965 under Operation Coldstore. Pillai is of Malayalee descent, and spoke Malayalam as his mother tongue.

Pillai attended Newton Boys School (which merged into Monk's Hill Primary School), Monk's Hill Secondary School and Hwa Chong Junior College.

Pillai was the head of commercial litigation at Rajah & Tann

Political career A member of the PAP since 2001, Pillai served from 2007 to 2011 as the branch secretary at PAP's Bukit Batok branch.

2015 general election Pillai contested the 2015 general election in a PAP team for Aljunied GRC.

During his campaign, Pillai chose the Mandarin nickname of "Ah-Mu" . Pillai later clarified that this potential S$1.9 million project is "part of" the S$23.6 million masterplan announced by David Ong during the 2015 general election.

Pillai's campaign manifesto focused on three domains: jobs, social mobility and the elderly.

Pillai defeated the Singapore Democratic Party's candidate Chee Soon Juan and secured 61.21% of the votes to win the Bukit Batok by-election on polling day. He was sworn into parliament on 9 May 2016.

After the 2018 cabinet reshuffle, Pillai was appointed Chairperson of Home Affairs and Law Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) in the 14th Parliament. He continued to serve as Chairman until 1 July 2024 where he relinquished the Chairmanship to Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim after taking office as Minister of State.

In 2019, Pillai, and Tin Pei Ling, asked in Parliament whether MediShield Life provides adequate coverage for citizens.

2020 general election On 30 June 2020, after submitting his nomination papers for the election, Pillai claimed on social media that there was an online attack against his son, who was convicted of an offence. It was alleged that it was a deliberate attack on his candidacy. Pillai was also publicly criticised by one of his constituents on Facebook for being unempathetic to her housing issues, suggesting to her that marriage was the solution to her issues. Pillai won the election with 54.80% of the valid votes.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pillai was criticised by Chee for allowing a gathering of seniors to take place. Pillai attended the event in his position as the adviser to Bukit Batok's Grassroots Organisations. Pillai defended against the criticism by saying that precautions were in place for the dinner.

On 13 May 2024, it was announced that Pillai was appointed to minister of state in the Ministry of Law and Ministry of Transport, an appointment that he would only take on from 1 July 2024. He resigned from Rajah & Tann on the effective date of the appointment. He is one of two backbenchers promoted to a full-time political office in that announcement, the other being Shawn Huang. On the appointment, Pillai noted that his decision to go into politics full-time was "motivated by a sense of duty", and he only did so after getting the support of his family and wife.

2025 general election Pillai contested in the 2025 general election in a PAP team for Jurong East–Bukit Batok GRC. On 3 May 2025, the team were duly elected after securing 76.66 percent of the vote in the area against Red Dot United. In the course of the election campaigning, Pillai warned against populism and polarization in society from politics. In August 2025, Pillai was appointed to spearhead a new committee seeking to strengthen the Singapore Indian community, and serves as an advisor for another committee seeking to strengthen the community's identity and its youth.

Personal life Pillai married his wife, N. Gowri, in 1996. Gowri is a teacher. The couple have twin sons and two daughters.