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Dayanidhi Maran
Dayanidhi Maran
	Union Minister of Textiles Dayanidhi Maran addressing an Interactive Session of CII, in Mumbai in 2010
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 23 May 2019
Preceded by	S. R. Vijayakumar
Constituency	Chennai Central
	In office; June 2004 – May 2014
Preceded by	Murasoli Maran
Succeeded by	S. R. Vijayakumar
Constituency	Chennai Central
Minister of Communications and Information Technology
	In office; 22 May 2004 – 16 May 2007
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Arun Shourie
Succeeded by	A. Raja
Minister of Textiles
	In office; 28 May 2009 – 12 July 2011
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Shankersinh Vaghela
Succeeded by	Anand Sharma
Personal details
Born	5 December 1966 (age 57); Kumbakonam, Madras State, India; (now in Tamil Nadu, India)
Political party	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Spouse	Priya Maran
Children	2
Alma mater	Loyola College, Chennai
Website	www.dmaran.in
	As of 22 September, 2006Source: [1]

Dayanidhi Murasoli Maran (born 5 December 1966) is an Indian politician and one of the prominent members of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party. He was elected four times as a Member of Parliament to Lok Sabha from Chennai Central constituency during the 2004 general elections, 2009 general elections, 2019 general elections and 2024 elections.

He is the son of former Union Minister Murasoli Maran and the grandnephew of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and former DMK president M. Karunanidhi. He is the younger brother of Indian billionaire Kalanithi Maran, the founder, chairman and of Sun Group and of Sun Risers Hyderabad. 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 and has been a delegate at many international seminars and conferences in various countries.

Early life

Dayanidhi is the second son of ex-minister Murasoli Maran, who had been the Commerce and Industrial minister. He is also the grandnephew of DMK president and ex-chief minister of Tamil Nadu M Karunanidhi. He is the younger brother of Kalanidhi Maran, the founder and managing director of Sun Network. He had his schooling with Don Bosco, Egmore,^[1]^[2] Chennai. He received initial education in Tamil Nadu and graduated in Economics from Loyola College^[3] in Chennai. He also attended the "Owner /President Management Programme" (OPM) from Harvard Business School (USA).^[4] The Owner/President Management Programme is meant for business owners/founders.^[5] Dayanidhi is married to Priya of "The Hindu" family. Priya is the daughter of Ramesh Rangarajan, Director Kasturi & Sons^[6] and the pair have a daughter and a son.

Positions Held

Period	Position
14 Aug. 2024 onwards	Member of the Committee on Estimates
18 Jul. 2024 onwards	Member, Business Advisory Committee
June 2024	Elected to 18th Lok Sabha
June 2024 onwards	Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Corporate Affairs
13 Sept. 2019 onwards	Member, Standing Committee on Home Affairs
24 Jul. 2019 onwards	Member, Committee on Estimates
May 2019	Re-elected to 17th Lok Sabha (3rd term)
31 May 2009 – 19 Jul. 2011	Union Cabinet Minister, Textiles
2009	Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha (2nd term)
May 2004 – 13 May 2007	Union Cabinet Minister, Communications and Information Technology
2004	Elected to 14th Lok Sabha

Tenure as an MP and Union minister

He contested from Central Chennai Constituency in Tamil Nadu as a DMK party candidate and been elected thrice during the 2004, 2009 & 2019 elections as member of parliament.

During the 2004 elections, his winning margin was over 134,000 votes and he received 62% of the total votes polled.^[4] He was appointed Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology on 26 May 2004. During his tenure as IT and Telecommunication Minister the call rates of mobiles and landlines were drastically reduced which in-turn influenced the growth of subscriptions.^[7] During the tenure, he was instrumental in garnering a large amount of Foreign Direct Investments into Communication and Information Technology Sector. Many multinational telecom companies including Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, Flextronics and Dell set up units in the country. His ministry introduced "One Rupee One India" plan across the country, which enabled calls across the country at a rate of 1 ₹ per minute. His ministry set and achieved a target of 250 million connections in Dec 2007 to December 2010, against 75 million in May 2004.^[8]^[9]^[10]

During the 2009 elections he won by a margin of 33,454 votes and he received 46.82% of the total votes polled.

During the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, he once again contested from the Chennai Central Parliamentary Constituency, winning it for the 3rd time, polling a stunning 4,48,911 votes and defeated the other contestants with a record-breaking victory margin of 3,01,520 votes.^[11]

Elections contested

Year	Constituency	Result	Vote percentage	Opposition Candidate	Opposition Party	Opposition vote percentage
2004	Chennai Central	Won	61.68	N. Balaganga	AIADMK	35.52^[12]
2009	Chennai Central	Won	46.82	S.M.K. Mohamad Ali Jinnah	AIADMK	41.34^[13]
2014	Chennai Central	Lost	36.4	S. R. Vijayakumar	AIADMK	42.21^[14]
2019	Chennai Central	Won	57.15	S. R. Sam paul	PMK	18.77