T. T. V. Dhinakaran

Thiruthuraipoondi Thiruvenkatam Vivekananda Dhinakaran (born 13 December 1963) is an Indian politician who popularly known as TTV is founding General Secretary of Amma Makkal Munnettra Kazagam. His cadres revered him as Makkal Selvar. In the past he was the Treasurer of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Party and served as the Member of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. He was expelled from the AIADMK in August 2017. He also served as former Member of the 15th Tamil Nadu Assembly from Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar (2017-2021). He is the nephew of V. K. Sasikala. He won the highly anticipated RK Nagar by-election in December 2017. On 15 March 2018 Dhinakaran launched his political party named Amma Makkal Munnettra Kazagam.

Dhinakaran is described as a cool-headed and religious person. and was runner-up in the seat at 2004 general election when he was defeated by J. M. Aaron Rashid. R.K. Nagar by-election, he defeated AIADMK's candidate E. Madhusudhanan with a huge margin of votes as an independent candidate. He assumed the office of MLA on 29 December 2017.

Dinakaran was reinducted into the AIADMK and appointed deputy general secretary on 15 February 2017, hours before V. K. Sasikala left to surrender herself in the Bengaluru court to serve the jail term in a disproportionate assets case. He was expelled from the party in August 2017 Dhinakaran announced that Sasikala would be the general secretary while he would be the deputy general secretary. On 19 April 2019, he was elected as the general secretary.

He failed to win his seat to Kadambur Raju in Kovilpatti Assembly constituency in 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election. Dhinakaran anncounced on 11 March 2024 that his party was joining the National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2024 Indian general election, assuring it of unconditional support. It failed to win from any of the two seats, although Dhinakaran managed to become the runner-up in the elections to the Theni Lok Sabha constituency.

Arrest and Lawsuit Election commission bribery case On 17 April 2017, Delhi police registered a case against Dhinakaran regarding an allegation of attempting to bribe the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the AIADMK's election symbol.

On April 25, 2017, the Delhi Police arrested Dhinakaran, following four consecutive days of interrogation by the Delhi Police Crime Branch. Investigators accused Dhinakaran of roping in conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar as a middleman to facilitate the deal, which was reportedly worth ₹50 crore. Police claimed that Chandrashekhar was arrested at a South Delhi hotel with ₹1.3 crore in cash, which was allegedly meant as an initial instalment of the bribe. Dhinakaran's close associate, Mallikarjuna, was also taken into custody for his suspected role in moving the funds through illegal channels. Dinakaran was charged with conspiracy and corruption in the case.

He remained in judicial custody until June 1, 2017, when a special court granted him bail on a personal bond of ₹5 lakh, noting that the specific ECI officials intended to be bribed had not yet been identified. In December 2018, a Delhi court officially framed criminal charges against him for conspiracy and destruction of evidence. In April 2022, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Dhinakaran for further questioning to confront him face-to-face with Sukesh Chandrashekhar regarding inconsistencies in their statements.

Elections contested and positions held Rajya Sabha elections

Lok Sabha Year ConstituencyParty Votes % OpponentOpponent Party Opponent Votes % Result Margin % 2024 Theni 292,668 25.65 Thanga Tamil Selvan 571,493 50.08 -278,825 -24.43 2004Periyakulam 325,696 46.49 J. M. Aaron Rashid 346,851 49.51 -21,155 -3.02 1999 303,881 45.6 P. Selvendran 258,075 38.8 45,806 6.8

Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Elections Year ConstituencyParty Votes % OpponentOpponent Party Opponent Votes % Result Margin % 2021 Kovilpatti 56,153 31.23 Kadambur Raju 68,558 38.13 -12,405 -6.9 2017 R.K. Nagar 89,013 50.32 E. Madhusudhanan 48,306 27.31 40,707 23.01

Positions in Parliament of the Republic of India

Positions in Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly