Veerappan, India’s most famous poacher and sandalwood smuggler, is back in the Tamil Nadu elections through his wife and daughter who are contesting from different Assembly seats on two regional assembly tickets. The two say they are fighting to restore his “pride” and claim he was not as individual as they thought he was.
Veerappan, who belonged to the Vanniyar community, a major influential group in western Tamil Nadu, was killed by state police in a forest encounter in Paparabati village in Dharmapuri district in October 2004.
His daughter Veda Rani Veerappan, 35, a lawyer, is contesting in the Mettur Assembly segment in Salem district as a candidate for the Siman-led Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) political party, two years after she made her debut in the 2024 polls. According to the Election Commission, Rani polled 107,000 votes. She received 28,000 votes more than the party’s candidate received in the 2019 elections.
Likewise, her mother Muthulakshmi Veerappan is also in the election as a candidate for the Tamil Thamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi (TVK) party in Krishnagiri Assembly constituency.
After her husband’s death, Muthulakshmi Veerappan made her political debut after contesting unsuccessfully in 2006 as an independent candidate in Pinagaram constituency in Dharmapuri district, another area dominated by the Vanniyar community.
Although it was widely discussed that she would contest from Krishnagiri constituency in the 2024 elections, Muthulakshmi did not contest, paving the way for her daughter Vidhya Rani.
Muthulakshmi Veerappan is contesting for the first time from Krishnagiri constituency, which has a large Vanniyar population.
Thamizaga Vazvorimai Katchi, the party she represents, was previously an ally of the ruling Secular Progressive Alliance led by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (SPA). However, during seat-sharing negotiations, party founder S. Velmurugan left the alliance apparently upset over his party’s “ignorance” and the KDP’s “big brother attitude” during the seat-sharing talks.
“I have been receiving positive feedback from people whenever I participate in the poll campaign,” Muthulakshmi Veerappan said.
When asked how her daughter is contesting in Mettur as she is contesting from the Krishnagiri seat (two different candidates in the same family), Muthulakshmi said: “Both our parties are consistent with the basic pillar of Tamil nationalism.”
“Although I met people from Mettur, NTK leader Seeman announced that my daughter Vidhya Rani will contest from Mettur constituency. After discussion with my party, the leadership nominated (TVK president) T Velmurugan to contest from Krishnagiri seat,” he said. She said.
When Rani was asked if she and her mother were running in two different parties, she said their ideologies differ. “My party (NTK) has nominated me to contest for the Mettur assembly seat. I am happy about that,” she said.
After participating in a rally led by NTK president Seeman, Vidya Rani said her father was not a criminal as expected.
Sivagami, a domestic helper and resident of Mettur-Kuppam Road, said she had heard many good things about Veerappan. “Based on people’s reaction to him. We think he’s a good guy. His daughter is competing in the elections. We hope she does something good for us,” she said.
Rangasamy, another shop owner, echoed similar sentiments that he too hopes Vidya Rani will do something good. “Why am I making such a comment because he was very helpful and did a lot of good things for the poor even though Veerappan lived in the forests.”
Led by K Vijay Kumar of the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force (STF) under ‘Operation Cocoon’, Veerappan and his aides including Sethukuli Govindan and Sethumani were killed in October 2004. He was booked in nearly 175 police cases including 130 murder cases. While late Kannada actor Rajkumar was kidnapped and released, former Karnataka minister H Nagappa was kidnapped and murdered by Veerappan in 2002.
Even during the election campaign, Seeman asked that if LTTE chief Prabhakaran was guarding the Tamil race, Veerappan was looking after the forests.
Vidhya Rani was a supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before joining NTK. Before joining the BJP, she was a member of veteran politician S Ramadoss-led Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), which represents the Vanniyar community. Veerappan also belongs to the same community.
Political analyst Ramesh Sethuraman said that political parties like Thamizhaga Vaazhvurimai Katchi and Naam Tamilar Katchi want to portray Veerappan as a hero to the Tamil community and his wife and daughter are being used as a face to get votes.
“Veerappan was a ruthless killer and smuggler. He, along with his associates, was involved in several illegal activities like cutting sandalwood, killing elephants for their tusks, and killing forest officials and police officers who were trying to curb his illegal activities,” he added.
