Agency report
Madurai, May 20: Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister and DMK stalwart P T R Palanivel Rajan died of cardiac arrest early on Friday.
The 74-year-old former Speaker of the State Assembly, hailing from a family with close association with the Dravidian movement right from its early period, was arriving in Madurai in train with other ministers for a grand reception and felicitation.
The end came near Dindigul en route and he was rushed to a private hospital where he was declared dead.
Elected from the Madurai Central constituency in the just concluded Assembly poll, the gentleman-politician was inducted into the Karunanidhi Ministry as HR&CE Minister. His father, P T Rajan, a close associate of rationalist leader E V Ramasamy Naicker, was a leading light of the Self Respect Movement and a stalwart of the Justice Party.