Dayanidhi Maran
Dayanidhi Murasoli Maran is an Indian politician and one of the prominent members of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party. He was elected thrice as a Member of Parliament to Lok Sabha from Chennai Central constituency during the 2004 general elections, 2009 general elections & 2019 general elections.
He is the son of former Union Minister Murasoli Maran and the grandnephew of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and former DMK president M. Karunanidhi. He is the younger brother of Indian billionaire Kalanithi Maran, the founder, chairman and of Sun Group. He is married to Priya, and has a daughter and a son.
Maran has wide exposure in the fields of media, television, cable technology, political economy and management and has been a delegate at many international seminars and conferences in various countries.
Early life
Dayanidhi is the second son of ex-minister Murasoli Maran, who had been the Commerce and Industrial minister. He is also the grandnephew of DMK president and ex-chief minister of Tamil Nadu M Karunanidhi. He is the younger brother of Kalanidhi Maran, the founder and managing director of Sun Network. He had his schooling with Don Bosco, Egmore, Chennai. He received initial education in Tamil Nadu and graduated in Economics from Loyola College in Chennai. He also attended the "Owner /President Management Programme" from Harvard Business School.Dayanidhi is married to Priya and the pair have a daughter named Divya and a son named Karan.
Tenure as an MP and Union minister
He contested from Central Chennai Constituency in Tamil Nadu as a DMK party candidate and been elected thrice during the 2004, 2009 & 2019 elections as member of parliament.During the 2004 elections, his winning margin was over votes and he received 62% of the total votes polled. He was appointed as Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology on 26 May 2004. During his tenure as IT and Telecommunication Minister the call rates of mobiles and landlines were drastically reduced which in-turn influenced the growth of subscriptions. During the tenure, he was instrumental in garnering a large amount of Foreign Direct Investments into Communication and Information Technology Sector. Many multinational telecom companies including Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, Flextronics and Dell set up units in the country. His ministry introduced "One Rupee One India" plan across the country, which enabled calls across the country at a rate of 1 per minute. His ministry set and achieved a target of 250 million connections in Dec 2007 to December 2010, against 75 million in May 2004.
During the 2009 elections he won by a margin of 33,454 votes and he received 46.82% of the total votes polled. He was appointed as Union Minister for Textiles, and was instrumental in shielding and steering the Indian Textile Industry to safe waters during the Global recession. His policies and initiatives helped boost exports and gave a fresh breath of air to a legacy industry distraught with demand & supply woes. He initiate several infrastructural and developmental programmes to build skill and upgrade technology for the textile industry and helped take Indian products to unexplored foreign markets in East & South Asia with his "Look East" policy. He also ensured that several thousands of rural & marginalised artisans & weavers got access to better healthcare and insurance facilities and ensured that the ministry promoted research and development in all segment of the industry including handlooms and handicrafts and created a common technology platform on commercial basis to support adaptation of newer technology for value addition and product diversification. He expanded the coverage of Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme, Expanded Scheme of Integrated Textile Parks and constituted work groups for national fiber policy. He created a platform for E-Marketing of handloom and handicrafts and accelerated the revival and modernisation of National Textile Corporation mills. He upgraded the Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel institute of textile management into an Indian School of textile management and business. This provided for more quality human resource in the form of research, industrial engineers, product development managers and trainers.
During the , he once again contested from the Chennai Central Parliamentary Constituency, winning it for the 3rd time, polling a stunning 4,48,911 votes and defeated the other contestants with a record-breaking victory margin of 3,01,520 votes.
Elections contested
| Year | Constituency | Result | Vote percentage | Opposition Candidate | Opposition Party | Opposition vote percentage |
| 2004 | Chennai Central | Won | 61.68 | N. Balaganga | AIADMK | 35.52 |
| 2009 | Chennai Central | Won | 46.82 | S.M.K. Mohamad Ali Jinnah | AIADMK | 41.34 |
| 2014 | Chennai Central | Lost | 36.4 | S. R. Vijayakumar | AIADMK | 42.21 |
| 2019 | Chennai Central | Won | 57.15 | S. R. Sam paul | PMK | 18.77 |