Chennai, Sep 21 (IANS): Former Union Minister and former Speaker of Tamil Nadu assembly, Sedapatti R. Muthiah (77) passed away in a private hospital in Chennai on Wednesday.

Muthiah was a senior leader of the AIADMK and was the second in command of the party till 1998. Fondly known as Sedapattiar, he entered politics through the student wing of DMK, after completing his M.Sc in Mathematics.

He emerged as a student leader after participating in anti-Hindi agitations in the Madurai region. He joined the AIADMK when MGR founded the new party in 1977 as the matinee idol was highly popular in the Madurai region.

Muthiah contested the assembly seat in 1977 from the Sedapatti constituency and went on to win consecutively from the same seat. He became the Speaker of the assembly in 1991 and continued till 1996.

He became a Union Minister for Surface Transport in the Cabinet of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Muthiah kept away from politics for some time but later joined DMK in 2008 and went on to become a member of the party's electoral wing.