MNM Pondy unit president succumbs to COVID-19

Makkal Needhi Maiam state president and former legislator, Dr MAS Subramanian, died here of COVID-19, official sources said. The 70-year old leader breathed his last at a private hospital here. He is survived by a daughter. DMK President M K Stalin and MNM founder Kamal Haasan condoled the former MLA's death. In the past, he had represented both the AIADMK and the DMK in the territorial Assembly.

Subramanian was AIADMK legislator for two terms from 1985. Later, he shifted his allegiance to the DMK and was elected to the House in 2001. In 2018, he quit the Dravidian party and joined MNM. He was a medical graduate and concentrated on various social welfare activities. Condoling Subramanian's death, MNM chief Kamal Haasan said the former had years of political experience and worked from the front for the party in the union territory.

"He was my dear friend and stood like a pillar for the party," he said in a statement in Chennai.

Stalin expressed grief over Subramanian's death and recalled his earlier association with the DMK and said "it is a great loss for the people of Puducherry that he died of coronavirus." In a statement, he expressed his sympathies with the family of the deceased and Haasan and appealed to those in public service to follow due precautions while catering to the people.