K. A. Sengottaiyan

K. A. Sengottaiyan (born 9 January 1948) is an Indian politician from Tamil Nadu associated with the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam led by actor-turned politician Vijay. He is currently Chief Coordinator of the High-level Administrative Committee within the TVK party. He has had a long political career primarily with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and has served as a MLA from the Gobichettipalayam constituency for multiple terms. He is the former Minister for School Education in the Government of Tamil Nadu. He was the longest serving ADMK MLA along with his then opposition counterpart Duraimurugan.

He was elected as Member of the Legislative Assembly to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly as an All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate from Sathyamangalam constituency in 1977 election^[4] and from Gobichettipalayam constituency in 1980, 1984, 1989 (Jayalalitha faction), 1991, 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021 in Erode district.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

Sengottaiyan was the Minister for Transport from 1991 to 1996 during the first tenure of Jayalalithaa cabinet. He was again the Minister for Agriculture until November 2011 when a cabinet reshuffle by Jayalalithaa resulted in that portfolio being given to S. Damodaran and Sengottaiyan taking over the Information Technology portfolio from R. B. Udhaya Kumar.^[10]

In 2000, Sengottaiyan was convicted in two different corruption cases by the Special CBI Court for criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust involving misappropriation of Transport Department funds related to his role as Tamil Nadu Transport Minister (1991–96). In one case, he was sentenced to 4 years of rigorous imprisonment plus a fine of ₹1.05 lakh, and in the other case, 5 years of rigorous imprisonment by a second Special Court. Because of these convictions, under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, Sengottaiyan was disqualified from contesting the 2001 Assembly elections.^[11][12][13]

In 2001 when the AIADMK came to power, after his appeal, in February 2005, he was acquitted by the Madras High Court in both cases. After the DMK came to power in 2006, an appeal was made in the Supreme Court of India against the High Court acquittal. However, in November 2006, the Supreme Court declined to interfere with the High Court's judgment - not on merits, but because the appeal was filed with a delay.^[14][13][15]

From 2006 to 2012, he served as the headquarters secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.^[16][17] Later in 2012, he was removed from his ministerial berth, party positions and basic membership by the chief minister due to personal allegations involving his P.A and actresses Bhanupriya and Sukanya^[18] by his own family to the chief minister.^[19][20] He remained sidelined from the party until the death of J.Jayalalithaa on 5 December 2016

In February 2017, following the appointment of Edappadi K. Palaniswami as the Chief Minister in place of O. Paneerselvam, Sengottaiyan replaced K. Pandiarajan as the Minister for School Education. Pandiarajan was the only cabinet minister to have supported Paneerselvam during a party dispute in which V. K. Sasikala was being touted as a possible Chief Minister. The appointment of Sengottaiyan was the only change made to the cabinet by Palaniswami at that time.^[21] He allegedly punched the former Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi in his face during the infamous 1989 violent clash in assembly.^[22]

In September 2025, Sengottaiyan urged AIADMK party general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami to take steps to reunite expelled and dissenting leaders to restore the party’s strength ahead of the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly election.^[23][24]

On 31 October 2025, Sengottaiyan was expelled from the AIADMK under the allegation that Sengottaiyan had accompanied expelled leader O. Panneerselvam and AMMK founder T. T. V. Dhinakaran in the same car and participated in a joint press conference at Pasumpon during the Tevar Jayanthi ceremony.^[25][26][27]

After expelled from the AIADMK party, Sengottaiyan resigned as the MLA of the Gobichettipalayam constituency on 26 November 2025. He joined the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam in the presence of its leader Vijay and was appointed as the chief coordinator of TVK’s high-level administrative committee, and additionally as the organisation secretary for four western districts — Coimbatore, Erode, Tiruppur, and the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu on November 27.^[28]