A modest house in Sattur off the busy Madurai-Tirunelveli National Highway has an unassuming resident with an impressive history to its credit. 64 years ago, resident P. Ramamoorthy, now 92, volunteered to fight the then all-powerful Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Kamaraj in Sattur.
“I was barely 29. As a youngster, I wanted to contest the Assembly elections and become an MLA. I didn’t think much about (the consequences of) contesting against Kamaraj,” says Mr. Ramamoorthy, hastening to add that he has nothing personal against the former chief minister, who was a “good person” who did a lot for the state. “His hands were clean,” he points out.
Inspirational speeches
When Mr. Ramamoorthy was an employee of a private company, the idea of entering electoral politics struck him. “The speeches of Thevar (Advance Block leader U. Muthuramalinga Thevar) were inspiring. He was staying in Tiruchi in those days (in 1962) after being acquitted in the Immanuel Sekaran murder case. I told him my desire. On his advice I joined the Swatantra Party and became its Satturnomine.” However, the decision to take on Kamaraj was not an easy one for him. His father MK Pappu Naidu was a long-time Congress member who served as the president of the Muthusamipuram village panchayat for 20 years and a member of the Ramanathapuram composite district committee in 1936, besides being a member of the Congress committees for Sattur taluk and Ramanathapuram districts. “Besides, my community, Kammavar Naidu, loved Kamaraj and played an important role in his rise in politics,” says Mr. Ramamoorthy.
But soon Mr. Ramamoorthy came under pressure from his community. Many members of the community tried to convince him to withdraw from the race. Despite his father’s record in Congress, “he was with me through thick and thin. He told visitors that his son was a young man who wanted to face the election. Let him do it.” In addition, there was an element of fear on the part of the Swatantra Party nominee that the then ruling party might go all out to get Kamaraj elected unopposed, as Mr. Ramamoorthy said happened with TT Krishnamachari, who was declared elected from the Tiruchendur Lok Sabha constituency without facing any opposition. Simultaneous elections were taking place at the time.
The 1962 election held no surprises. Kamaraj won. He defeated Mr. Ramamoorthy by 13,444 votes, the margin percentage is about 16%. On these days, the constituency had 1,01,991 voters and 86,338 polled votes. The winner received 46,950 votes. According to the final electoral rolls released in February 2026, the current Sattur electorate is 2,27,963. Regarding election expenditure in 1962, a contestant from Sattur recalls that it was around ₹50,000, “most of which was borne by the party”.
‘false case’
He claims his decision was not without “repulsion”. After an investigation, he was presented with a “false case”. Although he was convicted by the trial court, he was acquitted on appeal, the outcome of which was made possible by the intervention of his party founder C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji), who asked a leading criminal lawyer to argue his case.
Five years later, in recognition of his decision to challenge the former chief minister, the party fielded him in the Sivakasi Lok Sabha constituency. This time, the Swatantra Party was allied with the DMK, which faced the election by forming a coalition comprising the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Praja Socialist Party, the Samyukta Socialist Party, the Provisional Bloc, the Tamil Arasu Kazhagam, the “We Tamils” party and the Muslim League. Mr. Ramamoorthy made it to Parliament, securing about 1.94 lakh votes, defeating his nearest Congress rival, PA Nadar, by 31,600 votes. In the assembly elections, Kamaraj tasted his only electoral defeat when he lost to DMK’s P. Seenivasan in Virudhunagar. Seenivasan was also 29 years old.
It was only after Kamaraj won the Nagercoil Lok Sabha by-election in 1969 that Mr. Ramamoorthy met him in Parliament. Two years later, when Rajaji decided to join hands with Kamaraj to face the 1971 polls, MP Sivakasi could not accept his leader’s decision as his party had been working on an anti-Congress and anti-Kamaraj theme all along. He retired from electoral politics, although he was approached by leaders of Indira Gandhi’s Congress and the DMK. However, he never fulfilled his democratic duty of voting in the elections. He hopes to vote on April 23 as well.
Published – 03 Apr 2026 23:51 IST
