Erode Venkatappa Krishnasamy Sampath( – 23 February 1977), usually referred to as E. V. K. Sampath was a prominent politician from Tamil Nadu, India. He was an advocate of the Dravidian Movement of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy and was considered by some as his political heir. He later split from Periyar's Dravidar Kazhagam to form Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) along with C. N. Annadurai. In spite of being one of the founders of DMK he later left and formed his own party, by the name, Tamil National Party. Nevertheless, he later merged his party with the Indian National Congress. He is a former Member of Parliament from the constituency of Namakkal. He belonged to a politically active family. He was nephew of Periyar and his father was an active politician himself. He is also the father of other prominent politicians of Tamil Nadu, namely, E. V. K. S. Elangovan and Iniyan Sampath and his wife Sulochana Sampath too was in active politics, holding high ranks within the Tamil Nadu government. Family Sampath was born in the town of Erode, Madras Presidency as the son of E. V. Krishnasamy, the elder brother of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy in 1926. His family belongs to Balija naidu/naicker(caste) social group. Krishnasamy had extended extensive support to Periyar in his struggle for self-respect and social justice, and was one of the publishers of the journal Kudiarasu (Republic), the party organ for Justice party. In the year 1946 Sampath married Sulochana the daughter of Thirupathur G. Samy Naidu who was one of the pillars of the Justice party. Much later in life Sulochana Sampath held various high positions in the Tamil Nadu State Government including member of social welfare board, syndicate member of Annamalai University, Chairperson of Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, Chairperson of Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation, Chairperson of Tamil Nadu Text Book Society and Chairperson of Tamil Nadu Small Scale Industries Development Corporation. Sulochana was the organisation secretary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and an AIADMK veteran for several years. She died in June 2015, aged 86. Entry into politics He was attracted to Periyar's self-respect movement since early days of his life. The movement aimed at achieving a society where backward castes have equal human rights, and encouraging backward castes to have self-respect in the context of a caste based society that considered them to be a lower end