Cheppudira Muthana Poonacha was the Chief Minister of

Coorg Kodagu (also known by its former name Coorg) is an administrative district in the Karnataka state of India. Before 1956, it was an administratively separate Coorg State, at which point it was merged into an enlarged Mysore State. It occupies ...

, Minister in

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

State,

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

and

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

), Union Railway Minister of India and

Governor of Madhya Pradesh The governor of Madhya Pradesh is a nominal head and representative of the president of India in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The governor is appointed by the president for a period of five years. Governors of Madhya Pradesh See also * Madh ...

and Governor of Orissa.

Freedom Movement

C. M. Poonacha was a descendant of the Coorg

Dewan ''Dewan'' (also known as ''diwan'', sometimes spelled ''devan'' or ''divan'') designated a powerful government official, minister, or ruler. A ''dewan'' was the head of a state institution of the same name (see Divan). Diwans belonged to the el ...

s. During the Freedom Movement he was sentenced to imprisonment twice during the

Salt Satyagraha The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a di ...

in 1932 and 1933. He was again imprisoned in 1940–41 and in 1942–44. He became a member of All-India Congress Committee in 1938. Also, in 1938 he was elected to Coorg District Board, became its president in 1941 and in 1945 he was elected to Coorg Legislative Council. From 1945 to 1951 he was leader of the Congress Legislative Party in the council. He hence became a prominent member of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

party in

Politics

In 1947

was a separate state in South

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

until 1956. The other states of South India at that time were Bombay Presidency, Madras Presidency, Mysore kingdom, Travancore kingdom, Cochin kingdom and Hyderabad kingdom. The Coorg State Assembly had a strength of 24 members and the Cabinet consisted of just two members.

Constituent Assembly Member (Constitution of India)

C M Poonacha represented the Coorg state as a member of the Constituent Assembly.

Chief Minister (Coorg)

Two parties fought the 1952 state elections: the Takkadi ('Scales of Justice') party under veteran Gandhian

Pandyanda Belliappa Pandyanda I. Belliappa (or Pandianda I. Belliappa) was a Gandhian, a freedom fighter and politician from the erstwhile state of Coorg. Freedom struggle Belliappa entered politics in 1921 as a member of the Coorg Planters' Association. He later ...

, who was a dominant political force and voice of Coorg with its anti-merger plank, and the Congress under C.M. Poonacha in Coorg. Poonacha was elected Chief Minister of

Coorg State Coorg State was a Part-C state in India which existed from 1950 to 1956. When the Constitution of India came into force on 26 January 1950, most of the existing provinces were reconstituted into states. Thus, Coorg Province became Coorg State. ...

(1952–56) in the first general elections. Coorg had two MPs in the Union Parliament then, besides having a state legislative body. In 1956 the State Reorganisation Act was passed. Coorg was merged with Mysore and the legislative body at Mercara dissolved. While the Chief Minister was C.M. Poonacha, (who also held the finance portfolio), the only other Minister was Home Minister, Kittur Mallappa. C.M. Poonacha had won the Beriathnad seat while K. Mallappa won the second seat from Sanivarasante. The Congress won 15 seats and Independents (opposing merger), represented by the Takkadi party, won nine seats. Under various circumstances Coorg was merged with the then Mysore in 1956.

State Minister (Mysore)

After the formation of the new Mysore State Poonacha was Minister for Home and Industries under its Chief Minister S. Nijalingappa. He was also chairman, State Trading Corporation of India from 1959 to 1963. He led the Government of India Trade delegation to some East European countries in 1960 and was the leader of the State Trading Corporation delegation to Japan in 1961.

Central Minister

Poonacha was elected to the

in April 1964. Later Poonacha was made Union Minister without portfolio in Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet. From 1 to 24 January 1966, he was Minister of State in the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance. Lists of current ministries of finance Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Finance and Eco ...

and from 25 January 1966 to 12 March 1967 Minister of State in the Ministry of Transport, Aviation, Shipping and Tourism. He contested and won the

seat for the

Mangalore Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ker ...

constituency in 1969. He contested again in 1971 as a candidate of NCO party, but lost.

Union Railway Minister

After some time he became Union Minister for Railways from 1967 to 1969 (at first interim and then final) and Minister for Steel and Heavy Engineering in 1969. At that time he was the Member of Parliament representing

constituency to which Coorg then belonged.http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/railwayboard/uploads/directorate/finance_budget/Previous%20Budget%20Speeches/1968-69.pdf

Retirement

Governor

After his retirement from active politics, he served two terms as governor, once as

taking charge on 17 August 1978 and later as Governor of Orissa on 30 April 1980.

Family

Poonacha has two sons and two daughters. Two of his children, C. P. Belliappa and

Kavery Nambisan Kavery Nambisan is an Indian surgeon and novelist. Her career in medicine has been a strong influence in her fiction. Life Kavery Nambisan was born in Palangala village in south Kodagu, India, in a politician's family. Her father, C.M. Poonac ...

, are well-known writers in English.

References

Biodata of Cheppudi Muthana Poonacha
(see page 6)

External links

*http://www.irfca.org/docs/railway-ministers.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20090410070313/http://orissagov.nic.in/e-magazine/orissaannualreference/ORA-2005/pdf/bio-data_of_governor.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Poonacha, C. M. 1910 births 1990 deaths Indian independence activists from Karnataka Kodava people Railway Ministers of India People from Kodagu district India MPs 1967–1970 Chief ministers of Indian states Governors of Odisha Members of the Constituent Assembly of India Lok Sabha members from Karnataka Chief ministers from Indian National Congress Indian National Congress politicians from Karnataka Coorg State MLAs 1952–1956 Rajya Sabha members from Karnataka Indian National Congress (Organisation) politicians Mysore MLAs 1957–1962 Governors of Madhya Pradesh Indian National Congress politicians