Andimuthu Raja (b. 1963) educated in Madras University and Madurai Kamaraj University, was motivated by Tamil literature which had attracted him to Dravidian ideology promoted and propagated by Periyar E.V. Ramasamy, Founder of the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), a social reform movement. In 1983, his collection of Tamil poems was published under the title Oru Suya Sarithai. In 1983, he joined the student wing of DMK, a political party emerged from DK. In 1988, he started his legal practice in the lower judiciary in the native district Perambalur and he contested the Lok Sabha election in 1996 and elected as MP from Perambalur Constituency. Again, in 1999, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha and served as Minister of State for Rural Development and later in 2001 as Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare in the NDA Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In 2004, he was re-elected and served as Minister of Environment & Forests and later shifted to Ministry of Communications & IT in UPA-I .