A. Raja

Who is A. Raja?

Andimuthu Raja is an Indian politician from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam political party. He is the current member of the 15th Lok Sabha representing the Nilgiris constituency of Tamil Nadu and has been elected to house for four times since 1996. Raja is an advocate by profession and he did his masters from Government Law College in Tiruchirappalli. He is an important leader of the DMK party. Raja was born in Velur in Perambalur District in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Raja was first elected to Parliament as a member of Lok Sabha in 1996 from the Perambalur constituency and was reelected from the same constituency in 1999 and 2004 elections and from Nilgris constituency in 2009. He was Minister of State for Rural development from 1996 to 2000, Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare from September 2000 to May 2004 and a cabinet minister for Environment and Forests from May 2004 to May 2007. He became the cabinet minister for Communication and Information Technology from May 2007, following the resignation of Dayanidhi Maran. Raja is primarily accused to have conspired the 2G Spectrum scam, where two other members from DMK, namely, Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi are also accused. Raja and two of his former associates were arrested on 2 February 2011 and was placed for a period 15 months in judicial custody at Tihar Jail.