FORMER UNION MINISTER SUDARSANA NATCHIAPPAN DIES AT 78
The party announced three days of mourning and cancelled all Congress programmes during the period.
TNCC president Manickam Tagore said Natchiappan had consistently spoken up for reservation rights of backward and oppressed communities. The veteran leader held several responsibilities in Congress and offered suggestions for party reforms, he said. His funeral will be held at Eriyur in Sivaganga district at 3pm on Friday, the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee said.
He was 78. A lawyer by profession, Natchiappan entered Congress politics through its youth wing and served as Sivaganga district Youth Congress president from 1972 to 1975. He entered Parliament after winning Sivaganga Lok Sabha seat for Congress in 1999. Natchiappan moved to Rajya Sabha in 2004 and represented Tamil Nadu for two terms until 2016. In June 2013, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inducted him as minister of state for commerce and industry. He remained in office until May 2014.
TVK minister C T R Nirmal Kumar said Natchiappan’s long years in politics and public life would be remembered. He later headed the district Congress, building his political career through the party organisation in Sivaganga. During his tenure, he chaired the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice. Congress MP P Chidambaram recalled Natchiappan as an energetic youth leader who later served as a responsible Union minister and a committed parliamentarian. He also remembered him as an opposition leader who spoke openly on public issues. DMK MP Kanimozhi expressed condolences to his family and Congress colleagues. VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan termed his death a major loss to Tamil Nadu, while AMMK general secretary T T V Dhinakaran conveyed condolences to his family and party workers.
Madurai: Former Union minister and senior Congress leader E M Sudarsana Natchiappan, who represented Tamil Nadu in both houses of Parliament and headed a key parliamentary committee that scrutinised the Right to Information law, died in Sivaganga on Thursday.