S. S. Ramasami Padayachi (September 16, 1918 -April 3, 1992) was a politician from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He was the founder of the Tamil political party Tamilnadu Toilers' Party

Tamilnadu Toilers' Party

Tamilnadu Toilers Party was created by members of the Vanniar caste during 1950s. In 1951, Vanniyars convened a major conference of the Vanniar Kula Kshatriya Sangam. M. A. Manickavelu Naicker, a lawyer and S. S...

, which is considered to be a predecessor of Pattali Makkal Katchi

Pattali Makkal Katchi

Paattali Makkal Katchi is a Tamil political party.-History:PMK was founded by Dr. S. Ramdoss and the state president is G. K. Mani. Ramdoss had earlier worked with the Vanniyar Sangham founded by him in 1980. PMK is based amongst the Most Backward Class Vanniyakula Kshatriyas community...

.

Early life

Ramasami Padayachi was born in a Vanniyar family of South Arcot district of Madras Presidency on September 16, 1918. He studied till high school and dd not pursue any further education. He entered politics and founded the Tamil Nadu Toilers Party in 1951.

In the Madras Legislative Assembly

Ramasami was unsure over the choice of alliances. However, initially, he was highly sceptical of the Indian National Congress

Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

 and criticized the Commonweal Party for establishing an alliance with the Congress. But he significantly modified his stance when C. Rajagopalachari

C. Rajagopalachari

Chakravarti Rajagopalachari , informally called Rajaji or C.R., was an Indian lawyer, independence activist, politician, writer and statesman. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India...

 resigned as the Chief Minister of Madras state. He proposed negotiations with Rajaji's successor K. Kamaraj

K. Kamaraj

Kumarasami Kamaraj better known as K. Kamaraj was an Indian politician from Tamil Nadu widely acknowledged as the "Kingmaker" in Indian politics during the 1960s. He was the chief minister of Tamil Nadu during 1954-1963 and a Member of Parliament during 1952-1954 and 1969-1975...

 and eventually, merged his party with the Congress accepting an appointment as Minister of Local Self-Government.

During the 1962 elections, Ramasami quit the Congress and revived the Tamil Nadu Toilers Party. He concluded an alliance with the Swatantra Party

Swatantra Party

The Swatantra Party was a classical liberal political party in India founded by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and N. G. Ranga in August 1959. The party opposed the Nehruvian socialist outlook of the Congress Party by advocating free enterprise and free trade, and opposing the licence-permit Raj...

 and contested the elections as an ally of the Swarajya Party. However, Tamil Nadu Toilers Party performed poorly in the 1962 elections and Ramasami himself lost his seat. During the 1967 elections, Ramasami approached the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is a state political party in the states of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, India. It is a Dravidian party founded by C. N. Annadurai as a breakaway faction from the Dravidar Kazhagam headed by Periyar...

offering his support. But the DMK rebuffed him saying that there were enough candidates from the Vanniyar community in the DMK and the support of the Tamil Nadu Toilers Party would not be needed. The DMK performed well in the elections and captured power in the state.

As Member of Parliament

After a brief lull, Ramasami returned to politics in 1980. He returned to the Indian National Congress and contested in the Lok Sabha elections from Tindivanam and was elected to the lower house of Indian Parliament. Ramasami was re-elected in 1984 and served from 1980 to 1989.