A. Raja

They returned to India in the 1950s, and Raja's father returned in 1961.

In high school in Perambalur, Raja was first introduced to Periyar and Dravidar Kazhagam.

He quickly became interested in the atheistic, rationalistic Dravidian ideology, along with those of Ambedkar and Marx.

He did his B.Sc.

in mathematics from the Government Arts College in Musiri, but was uninterested in the subject, and was drawn to politics and writing instead.

He completed his graduation in law from the Government Law College in Madurai and his masters from Government Law College Tiruchirapalli.

He was married to M. A. Parameswari and the couple have a daughter named Mayuri.

Parameswari died of cancer on 29 May 2021.

She was aged 57.

Raja started his political career in his final year of undergraduate, when he joined DMK students wing, and quickly rose through party ranks.

Andimuthu Raja (born Sathyaseelan; 26 October 1963) is an Indian politician from Tamil Nadu, who serves as Member of Parliament for the Nilgiris constituency and deputy general secretary for the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

He was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha representing the Nilgiris constituency of Tamil Nadu and had been elected to house four times since 1996.

Raja is an advocate by profession and he did his master's degree from Government Law College in Tiruchirappalli.

Raja was first elected to Parliament as a member of Lok Sabha in 1996 from the Perambalur constituency and was reelected from the same constituency in 1999 and 2004 elections and from Nilgiris constituency in 2009.

He was Minister of State for Rural development from 1996 to 2000, Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare from September 2000 to May 2004 and a cabinet minister for Environment and Forests from May 2004 to May 2007.

When Vaiko was expelled from DMK, Raja was recommended by Rajya Sabha MP S Siva Subramaniam and KN Nehru for the DMK's candidature in Perambalur for 1996 Lok Sabha elections.

He won, and entered Parliament.

Raja was deputed as the Minister of State, Rural Development on 13 October 1996 and he continued to retain the post till 29 September 2000.

On 30 September 2001, he was deputed as the minister of state for Health and Family welfare during the National Democratic Alliance.

In December 2003, the DMK pulled out of the alliance and Raja resigned his minister's post along with his other DMK colleagues.

He continued with the same ministry after the 2004 elections which was won by the Congress led alliance, which included the DMK.

His association with the key accused in the 2G case, Unitech and DB Realty, was rooted to 2004 when he was the Environment minister.

He became the cabinet minister for Communication and Information Technology from May 2007, following the resignation of Dayanidhi Maran.

Raja was a co-accused in the 2G Spectrum case, along with two other members of the DMK, Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi.

In 2007 May, Dinakaran, the newspaper run by Kalanidhi Maran, the elder brother of Dayanidhi Maran who was the central minister for IT and Communication, ran into a controversy when it published the results of a series of opinion polls which showed M. K. Stalin, the second son of Karunanidhi, having more approval (70%) than his elder brother M. K. Azhagiri (2%) as the political heir of Karunanidhi.

It also showed others as 20%, possibly indicating Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi.

The Madurai office of Dinakaran was fire bombed by supporters of Alagiri and three employees were killed.

The Sun TV office in Madurai was also attacked by the perpetrators.

A day after the incident, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi came to Chennai for felicitating Karunanidhi for 50 years in legislative assembly.

Dayanidhi Maran, who usually accompanies Karunanidhi at every function, discarded the event as a mark of protest.

On 13 May, the DMK administrative committee empowered Karunanidhi to remove Dayanidhi from the party.

This subsequently led to his resignation from the central ministry.

Following his resignation, the IT portfolio was allocated to Raja on 16 May 2007.

His tenure as an Environment ministry came under intense scrutiny in 2011 during the 2G Spectrum case.

One of the key points out of the CBI is the approval of 2016 clearances given by his ministry in a span of two years from 2006 to 2008, some of which were associated with the trading of hazardous waste.

The other issue raised was about the large majority of Raja's supporters in the expert appraisals committee (EAC), responsible for granting clearances to various sectors.

All three were acquitted in 2017.

Raja was re-elected as Nilgiris MP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and was elected Deputy General Secretary of the DMK in September 2020.

Raja was born to S. K. Aandimuthu and Chinnapillai Ammal Andimadam of the day Perambalur District of Tamil Nadu.

His grandparents, who belong to a Dalit community, went from Velur in Perambalur district to Sri Lanka to work on the tea estates.