Balakrishnan or So.Ba,[1] was a veteran Indian politician, President of TNCC (2002–2003) and Opposition Leader of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu for 18 years.
[2] Balakrishnan was elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly as an Indian National Congress (INC) candidate from Mudukulathur constituency in the 1977 and 1991 elections[3][4] and as a Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) (TMC) candidate from the same constituency in 1996.
In the General Elections of 1971, he was runner-up in the Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituency with 139,276 votes (38.87% of the total).
[14] In the 1989 state elections, he contested from Kadaladi, a coastal constituency that neighboured Mudukalathur, and gained 32,273 votes, which was 409 (0.38%) less than the winner.
The total number of votes that were rejected or declared invalid in that constituency during the election was 1878 (1.71%).