Know Your Turncoats, Part 3: 8 defectors in Tamil Nadu, 3 in AIADMK and 1 in DMK

From frequent flippers to an incumbent BJP MP switching to the Congress – a total of 18 turncoats are contesting in the phase one of the Lok Sabha polls.    

So far, we gathered the details of three defectors from Rajasthan and one from Assam in part one of this series; while part two shone a light on the political journeys of two defectors from Meghalaya, one from Nagaland, and one from Bihar.

Now, we turn to Tamil Nadu, which has a total of eight turncoats. In part three of this series, we look at four of these defectors – three in AIADMK and one in DMK.

So who are these turncoat candidates?   

Dr P Saravanan: Jumped ship 6 times, 4 cases, one of fraud

Dr P Saravanan is the AIADMK’s candidate from Madurai constituency.

The 54-year-old serial turncoat is a doctor, entrepreneur, and has also acted in films. The owner of Madurai-based Saravana Hospital forayed into politics with Vaiko’s Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. 

But in the past decade, he has jumped ship six times. From the MDMK to DMK to BJP and back again to the DMK. He then quit the DMK, rejoined the BJP in 2021, but was expelled a year later for his “anti-party” stance. What else is a man to do? Saravanan returned to the DMK, only to abandon it for the AIADMK, which he joined in January last year.

At least four of these jumps came ahead of assembly polls, after Saravanan was denied a ticket. 

In 2021, weeks before the TN assembly polls, Dr Saravanan switched to the BJP. Within a few hours, he was announced as the party’s Madurai North candidate.      

This, however, is not the most startling aspect of his personality. Dr Saravanan has four pending cases against him, as per his affidavit. In one of these cases, he has been accused under IPC 328 for “causing harm to a person by administering poison or any harmful substance with the intent to commit or facilitate an offence” and criminal conspiracy. 

In another case, he has been accused of “giving false information, forged documents, cheating, breach of trust abetment and causing hurt”. He has also been charge-sheeted for implanting expired stents on cardiac patients. 

Despite these charges, the party hopper has been a prominent figure in Madurai politics. He has served as MDMK’s Madurai rural unit secretary and even the BJP district chief, besides contesting from the constituency in the assembly poll. He has also served as the secretary of DMK’s medical wing.  

His wealth has increased multifold from Rs 58 lakh in 2015 to Rs 11.23 crore in 2024 with land and properties of over Rs 4 crore. 

At present, the politician’s X account’s name says “Dr P Saravanan – Say No To Drugs & DMK”, while his profile picture features AIADMK chief Edappadi Palaniswami. 

His account has been wiped of any posts before September 2022, when he was ousted from the BJP. A post on his X account, around the same time, hailed AAP’s victory in Delhi and slammed the BJP, the party he showered praises on just a year ago. 

Mohamed Mubarak: SDPI TN chief but AIADMK candidate, one case    

VMS Mohamed Mubarak is the AIADMK’s candidate from Dindigul constituency.   

The 44-year-old businessman and state chief of the Social Democratic Party of India is contesting the Lok Sabha polls on an AIADMK’s ticket. The SDPI allied with the AIADMK last month.   

While the cover picture of his X account speaks of his association with the SDPI, his feed is full of pictures of him with AIADMK’s EPS and the party’s late chief J Jayalalithaa. The SDPI Tamil Nadu’s official X account has also been tweeting and reposting about Mubarak’s candidature.     

Mubarak, popularly known as Nellai Mubarak, reportedly knows the Dindigul constituency “inside out”. He has a pending case of forgery against him, as per his affidavit. 

Oddly, his wealth marginally decreased from Rs 18 lakh in 2021 to Rs 17 lakh in 2024.  

R Manoharan: MBA graduate, longtime Congressman

R Manoharan is the AIADMK’s candidate from North Chennai. 

Manoharan, 57, is an MBA graduate and businessman and a first-time Lok Sabha candidate. He is contesting from the DMK’s bastion of North Chennai. The party has won the constituency 11 times since 1957. Since 1996, the DMK’s only lost the constituency once, to the AIADMK in 2014.

Manoharan – who also goes by Royapuram Mano – was previously with the Congress for over two decades, also holding the post of District Congress Committee president. In the assembly polls in 2011 and 2016, he lost from Royapuram constituency in Chennai to the AIADMK’s D Jayakumar.

During his Congress days, Mano never missed a birth or death anniversary of a Congress stalwart on social media. He posted floral tributes for Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary in 2019 and organised events in Royapuram on Nehru’s birthday. 

The Congress sacked Mano in 2019. He reportedly sent out feelers to multiple parties, including the PMK and DMK, but none would have him. He finally joined the AIADMK in 2019. 

Now on the campaign trail, he criticised DMK for the “underdeveloped” state of Royapuram, promising “development” under the AIADMK. 

His assets, as of 2024, stand at Rs 52.42 crore – most of it attributed to the current value of his properties. He has a loan of Rs 4 crore.

Thanga Tamil Selvan: 14 cases, once TTV’s aide

Thanga Tamil Selvan is the DMK’s candidate from Theni.

Tamil Selvan, 63, was previously with the AIADMK and the AMMK. He has jumped ship more than once. From 2001 to 2017, he fought Tamil Nadu assembly elections three times on an AIADMK ticket from Andipatti constituency. He won all three times too. In 2002, the AIADMK also elected him to Rajya Sabha. 

But in 2017, Tamil Selvan was part of TTV Dhinakaran’s camp within the party. Dhinakaran, the nephew of Jayalalithaa’s aide Sasikala, was expelled from the party in 2017. Tamil Selvan went along with him and was part of Dhinakaran’s new party, the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam. Tamil Selvan was appointed its propaganda secretary. 

By 2019, Dhinakaran and Tamil Selvan were publicly butting heads and exchanging insults through the media. Meanwhile, Tamil Selvan contested from Theni but lost to AIADMK candidate P Ravindranath. 

Interestingly, in the Lok Sabha polls this year, Tamil Selvan will be competing against Dhinakaran in Theni.  

Meanwhile, back in 2019, rumour had it that Tamil Selvan would return to the AIADMK, he joined the DMK instead in June that year. That year, DMK had won 37 out of 38 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Selvan said he was joining DMK because he had “accepted” the good leadership of its supremo MK Stalin.

He currently has 14 cases pending against him. And as of 2024, his assets stand at Rs 4.90 crore.