P. H. Pandian

Paul Hector Pandian (27 February 1945 – 4 January 2020) was an Indian politician affiliated with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu from Tirunelveli district. He served as the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from 1985 to 1989.

He served as both Deputy Speaker and Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from 21 June 1980 to 5 February 1989. In the 1989 election, he was one of only two candidates elected from the V. N. Janaki Ramachandran faction of the AIADMK, winning the Cheranmahadevi seat.

Pandian was later elected to the Lok Sabha from the Tirunelveli parliamentary constituency in the 1999 general election. He also served as the organising secretary of the AIADMK under the leadership of former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.

His son, Paul Manoj Pandian, was also elected an MLA for AIADMK in 2001 from Cheranmahadevi, the same constituency represented by P. H. Pandian in 1989.

Pandian was one of the two senior AIADMK leaders who had not supported the ascension of Sasikala within the party after the death of Jayalalithaa in December 2016. Pandian further spoke out against Sasikala's chief ministerial candidacy in February 2017, asserting that she was unfit for the position. He also raised suspicions over Jayalalithaa's death claiming that she had died under unnatural circumstances.

Electoral performance