V. Vaithilingam is an Indian politician who is the member of parliamentPuducherry. He is former Chief Minister of Puducherry. He held the position as 11th Chief Minister of Puducherry from 1991 to 1996 and 14th Chief Minister of Puducherry again from 2008 to 2011. He is a senior legislator serving eight consecutive terms. He is known for the family politics in Puducherry. His paternal grandfather late Vaithilingam Reddiar was the Mayor of Nettappakkam commune during the French rule in Puducherry and his father V. Venkatasubha Reddiar was also a Chief Minister of Puducherry. He headed the Puducherry Government from 1991 to 1996 and the Congress Legislative party from 1991 to 2000. His priorities as Chief Minister was to minimize the budget deficit, increase private sector participation in public transport, improve health care system. He became Chief Minister at the age of 40.
Early life
He was born at Cuddalore and was raised in his native home Madukarai, Puducherry. After completing his schooling, he went to Loyola College in Chennai and later went to Madukkarai to take care of his family farms. In 1969, Vaithilingam married Miss Sasikala. From an early age, he developed exceptional leadership skills, an example of which was his role as the Chairman of Land Development Bank of Puducherry State.
Political career
In 1980, at the age of 30, he ran for the Legislative Assembly and lost with a narrow margin of 90 odd votes. In 1985, Vaithilingam won to become Public Works and Power Minister. He became familiar among the Congress Party members. From 1991 to 1996 he served as the Chief minister of Pondicherry, under his administration, Pondicherry saw a drastic growth in the industrial and education sector. He advocated smaller government and greater participation of private sector. Vaithilingam also benefited from the management of the economy and the liberalization policies followed by Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao. In 1996 electionsIndian National Congress became the single largest party, but their alliance lost the elections and he was appointed as the leader of opposition till 1999. In 2001 he won from Nettappakkam constituency but could not able to become chief minister because Vaithilingam was charged with an attempt to corrupt a fellow legislature and lost his congress leadership and N. rangaswamy was chosen as chief minister he served as an M.L.A in his cabinet till 2006. In 2006 he served as the minister of agriculture and industries till 2008. He was made the Chief minister in 2008 and he served till 2011. He became leader of opposition in 2011 election and he became speaker of the house in 2016 and resigned on 2019 after becoming member of parliament, Puducherry In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections V. Vaithilingam was chosen to represent Indian National Congress party and he defeated All India N.R. Congress candidate Dr. Narayanasamy Kesavan.
Electoral history
Member of the Legislative Assembly
Year
Post
Constituency
Party
Opponent
Opposition Party
Result
1980
M.L.A
Nettapakkam
INC
R. Subaraya Gounder
JNP
Lost
1985
M.L.A
Nettapakkam
INC
P. Ramamurthy
DMK
Won
1990
M.L.A
Nettapakkam
INC
N. Devadass
DMK
Won
1991
M.L.A
Nettapakkam
INC
R. Subraya Gounder
DMK
Won
1996
M.L.A
Nettapakkam
INC
V. Muthunarayanan
Independent
Won
2001
M.L.A
Nettapakkam
INC
K. Dhanraju
PMK
Won
2006
M.L.A
Nettapakkam
INC
V. Muthunarayanan
PMC
Won
2011
M.L.A
Kamaraj Nagar
INC
Nara Kalainathan
CPI
Won
2016
M.L.A
Kamaraj Nagar
INC
P. Ganesan
AIADMK
Won
Member of Parliament
Year
Post
Constituency
Party
Opponent
Opposition Party
Result
2019
M.P
Puducherry
INC
Dr. Narayanasamy Kesavan
All India N.R. Congress
Won
Comeback
Vaithilingam was charged with an attempt to corrupt a fellow legislature. Although he was acquitted on all charges, Vaithilingam lost his leadership of the Congress Legislative party in 2000. He was for the sixth time elected to the legislature and served as Industries and Power Minister in N.Rangaswamy cabinet in 2006.
