M. Veerapandian

M.​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ Veerapandian is a senior leftist politician and currently the State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) Tamil Nadu unit, elected in September 2025. Being a native of Vyasarpadi, Chennai, he has been with the CPI for over 40 years, and in the beginning, he had come through the student and youth organisations of the party.

He was an activist in the All India Students’ Federation (AISF) and later the All India Youth Federation (AIYF,) and thus, Veerapandian went up the party ladder. He took part in labour revolts and workers’ rights, education, and social equality-themed movements. He deserves the title of a highly organised worker and a proletariat community leader's voice due to his first-time work in the industrial belts of Chennai.

He was for many years a member of the state executive and the secretariat of the CPI, focusing on the revival of the party both in the villages and towns of Tamil Nadu. As a leader of a practical kind, he was a medium between the party’s old generation and the rising cadre.

Veerapandian was elected as CPI Tamil Nadu State Secretary by the party members in September 2025. His period in office is the transition from one generation to another in the CPI and a new drive to the party's presence before the 2026 Assembly elections. He has made it clear that his first step would be the deepening of friendly relations with secular and left-leaning parties, the strengthening of grassroots work, and the protection of workers’, farmers’, and the oppressed classes’ ​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌rights.