Karate R. Thiagarajan

Karate R. Thiagarajan is the present president of All India Karate Federation, and under his leadership karate in India has taken a new look and the AIKF has become more inclusive.

Thiagarajan is closely associated with activities relating to karate. He was the first person in India to win a black belt as a teenager (age 17). He was one of few selected from the NCC category for the 1981 Independence Day parade. Thiyagarajn, Mathiyalagan, Vilupuram Gunasekaran, E. S. Kumar, Ganapathy, and the late Tahnjai Murugan participated in the All India Karate Tournament in the 1980s, and Gunasekaran won the Golden Knife for that tournament.

Thiagarajan coached the Indian karate team in 2008 . The team fared so successfully at the 2008 Commonwealth Karate Championship held at Edinburgh. As per the All India Karate Federation, the 16 member team which India had sent to the Championship created history by securing two golds and five bronze medals.

Thiagarajan belongs to Indian National Congress party. As of 2005, he was the deputy Mayor in-charge of Corporation of Chennai.^[1] He was removed from the AIADMK party in the year 2005. He was absconding for a long time as there was some misunderstanding between him and the then Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa. Later on during the Assembly Elections in 2006, he came back to Chennai and joined Congress.

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