Dayanidhi Maran Politician
Dayanidhi Maran (born 5 December 1966, Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India) is a politician and one of the prominent members of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party. He was elected twice as a Member of Parliament to India's Lok Sabha from Chennai Central constituency during the 2004 general elections and 2009 general elections.During the period of 2004–2007, he served as Minister for Communications and Information Technology in the Union Cabinet. He resigned from the post following the family feud due to Dinakaran attack case in May 2007. He was deputed the Minister for Textiles in the Union Cabinet after the 2009 elections. He resigned from the position of Minister for Textiles in July 2011 following CBI enquiry as a part of 2G Spectrum scam into his alleged involvement in the Aircel-Maxis deal. Maran has been accused in various cases that include his alleged involvement in Aircel-Maxis deal, misusing ministerial powers by utilizing 323 phone connections for his family owned media network and demanding the Tatas 33.33% shares from the Tata-Rupert Murdoch DTH project.He is the son of Late Mr. Murasoli Maran and the grandnephew of DMK president M Karunanidhi. He is the younger brother of Kalanidhi Maran, the founder and managing director of Sun Network. The Marans' vast media and entertainment empire includes Sun TV network with 20 channels and 45 FM channels, DTH service and two newspapers and four magazines apart from film production and distribution business besides stepping into aviation business through SpiceJet. He is married to Priya, and has a daughter and a son. Maran has wide exposure in the fields of media, television, cable technology, political economy and management on account of his visiting seminar and conference in various countries. Maran has interest in playing golf, cricket and tennis.
