A. S. Ponnammal was an Indian Politician and a seven time MLA to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly spanning from 1957 to 2001. She was part of Congress Party, Tamil Maanila Congress and Congress Jananayaka Peravai. She was elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for five terms representing Nilakottai Assembly constituency and one term from each from the Palani Assembly constituency and Sholavandan Assembly constituency respectively. She was commonly referred to as Akka (elder sister). She died at Madurai at an age of 88 in 2015.
Career Ponnammal represented the Congress Party in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly from 1957 to 1967, having been elected from the Sholavandan constituency in Madurai. She was subsequently elected to Tamil Nadu assembly in 1980 as an Independent candidate. In 1984, she was elected in the Palani constituency as an Indian National Congress candidate. She won the Nilakottai constituency in 1989 and 1991 as an Indian National Congress candidate and in 1996 as a Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) Ponnammal was a veteran M.L.A of Tamil Nadu. She served as the Pro-term speaker of Tamil Nadu Legislative assembly post the state elections in 1989, 1991 and 1996. She unsuccessfully contested the Nilakottai seat in 1967, 1971 and 2001 elections.
Elections contested Tamil Nadu Legislative elections Year ConstituencyParty Votes % OpponentParty Votes % Result Margin % 1957 Nilakottai 29,623 19.24 M. Vadivel 14,965 9.72 +14,658 +9.52 1962 Sholavandan 25,911 46.37 A. Muniyandi 18,445 33.01 +7,466 +13.36 1967 Nilakottai 25,115 38.55 A. Muniyandi 37,601 57.71 -12,486 -19.16 1971 Nilakottai 24,540 38.88 A. Muniyandi 38,583 61.12 -14,043 -22.24 1980 Nilakottai 48,892 61.60 A. Manivasagam 30,480 38.40 +18,412 +23.20 1984 Palani 62,344 66.27 N. Palanivel 30,794 32.73 +31,550 +33.54 1989 Nilakottai 29,654 30.10 R. Paranthaman 28,962 29.39 +692 +0.71 1991 Nilakottai 62,110 65.75 M. Arivazhagan 25,050 26.52 +37,060 +39.23 1996 Nilakottai 59,541 54.48 A. Rasu 27,538 25.20 +32,003 +29.28 2001 Nilakottai 7,533 7.09 G. Anbazhagan 60,972 57.36 -53,439 -50.27
Awards She was awarded with the Kamarajar award of the Government of Tamil Nadu in 2006 to recognise and honour her public service.
Death She died in 2015 at Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai. Veteran Congress Leader Ponnammal passed away
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