Summary:
COIMBATORE: AIADMK MLA R Kanagaraj (64) died of cardiac arrest at his residence in Vadambacheri village on Thursday at 7.40am.Kanagaraj was elected as MLA for the first time from Sulur assembly constituency. He had been in the AIADMK for the last 35 years.His death would raise the number of vacant assembly seats to 22. So, people of RK Nagar were confused. TTV subsequently won the byelection held in December 2017.In March 2017, Kanagaraj threatened to quit the party over the death of two men in a stone quarry in his constituency.In July 2018, Kanagaraj offered a reward of Rs 50,000 to anyone who nabbed a chain snatcher in his assembly constituency. While byelections have been announced to 18 constituencies along with the Lok Sabha polls on April 18, the Election Commission had opted to defer polls to three on technical grounds.Known for courting controversy, the MLA had, on March 9, said the reason for DMDK's fall was its leader Vijayakanth 's discourteous behaviour in the state assembly when he thrust his tongue out at former chief minister J Jayalalithaa ..