K. A. Sengottaiyan
Kullampalayam Arthanari Sengottaiyan, better known as K. A. Sengottaiyan, is an Indian politician from Tamil Nadu. He is currently chief coordinator of the High-level Administrative Committee of Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam. He has had a long political career primarily with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and has served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Gobichettipalayam constituency for multiple terms. He has held various portfolios as a minister in the Tamil Nadu Government. In the 16th Tamil Nadu Assembly, he was the longest serving member of the assembly along with Durai Murugan.
Political Career
AIADMK (1972 – 2025)
Sengottaiyan was elected as Member of the Legislative Assembly to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly as an All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate from Sathyamangalam constituency in 1977 election and from Gobichettipalayam constituency in 1980, 1984, 1989, 1991, 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021 in Erode district. He allegedly punched Karunanidhi in his face during a violent clash in the assembly in 1989.Sengottaiyan was the minister for transport from 1991 to 1996 during the first cabinet of Jayalalithaa. In 2000, he was convicted in two different corruption cases by the a Central Bureau of Investigation court for criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust involving misappropriation of transport Department funds related to his role as the minister. He was sentenced to four and five years of rigorous imprisonment in the cases respectively and given a fine of. Because of these convictions, he was disqualified from contesting the 2001 Assembly elections. In February 2005, he was acquitted by the Madras High Court in both the cases. In November 2006, the Supreme Court of India declined to interfere with the High Court's judgment as the appeal of the Government of Tamil Nadu was filed with a delay.
From 2006 to 2012, he served as the headquarters secretary of the AIADMK. He was the minister for agriculture until November 2011 when a cabinet reshuffle by Jayalalithaa resulted in Sengottaiyan taking over the information technology portfolio. Later in 2012, he was removed from his ministerial berth, and party positions by Jayalalithaa.
After the death of Jayalalithaa on 5 December 2016, and following the appointment of Edappadi K. Palaniswami as the chief minister, Sengottaiyan was appointed as the minister for school education in February 2017. The appointment of Sengottaiyan was the only change made to the cabinet by Palaniswami at that time.
In September 2025, Sengottaiyan urged the party general secretary Palaniswami to take steps to reunite expelled and dissenting leaders to restore the party’s strength ahead of the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly election. On 6 September 2025, he was removed from his party posts by Palaniswami. He subsequently met union ministers Amit Shah and Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi on 10 September 2025, where he discussed unifying and strengthening the AIADMK. On 31 October 2025, he was expelled from the AIADMK under the allegation that he had accompanied expelled leaders O. Panneerselvam and T. T. V. Dhinakaran to Pasumpon for the Thevar Jayanthi ceremony.