Chennai: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)'s pointsman at New Delhi for over four decades and Union Minister without portfolio, Murasoli Maran, died this evening (Nov 23) in Chennai at a corporate hospital after a prolonged illness.

Maran, an MP from 1967, was a Minister in the V P Singh Government from 1989 to 1991, in H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral Cabinets from 1996 to 1998 and a Minister in Vajpayee Cabinet from 1999 onwards.

Considered to be the think-tank of the DMK and conscious-keeper of his uncle and DMK president M Karunanidhi, Maran was instrumental in forging the electoral alliances for the party.

An ideologue of the Dravidian movement, Maran convinced the DMK to be a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre in 1999.

It was a very assiduous task for him to convince the party cadres, which considered the BJP as an "octopus" and preaching "communal politics".

PTI