Former legislator of AIADMK Prabhakar joins Vijay’s TVK

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Former legislator of Villivakkam and veteran AIADMK member, J.C.D. Prabhakar, joined the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam in the presence of party founder Vijay in Chennai on Friday.

Mr. Prabhakar, who was elected from Villivakkam on the AIADMK ticket in 1980 and 2011, met the TVK leader at his residence in Foreshore Estate here.

The 73-year-old leader, an alumnus of Loyola College and Law College, defeated the firebrand legislator, K. Suppu, in 1980, and then sitting Finance Minister K. Anbazhagan in 2011.

In the mid-1980s, he was the AIADMK secretary of the composite Chengalpattu district. At the time of the AIADMK’s split in 1988, he was with the faction led by Janaki Ramachandran and contested unsuccessfully in Villivakkam the next year.

He was briefly affiliated with the Tamil Maanila Congress and the Samajwadi Party, before returning to the AIADMK in 2008. In 2016, then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa fielded him in Kolathur against the present Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.

At the time of the party’s second split in 2017, Mr. Prabhakar stood by the party’s former coordinator O. Panneerselvam. Five years later, he was expelled along with Mr. Panneerselvam and a few others. For about a year, he tried to bring about rapproachement among different groups of the AIADMK.