K. S. Venkatakrishna Reddiar (1909 – 14 January 1966) was an Indian politician and activist of the cooperative movement. He served as President of the short-lived Congress Reform Committee from 1957 to 1959.

Early life

Born in South Arcot, Venkatakrishna Reddiar worked to establish cooperative societies. He joined 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 E ...

and participated in the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

Congress Reform Committee

Reddiar resigned from the Congress in 1957 when the party ignored him in favour of representatives from its ally,

Tamil Nadu Toilers Party Tamil Nadu Toilers Party was created by members of the populous Vanniyar community of Tamil Nadu, India, during the 1950s. In 1951, Vanniyars convened a conference of the Vanniyar Kula Kshatriya Sanga which intended to organise Vanniyars on a stat ...

(TNT) for the 1957 elections. He formed the Congress Reform Committee along with

C. Rajagopalachari Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji'', the Scholar Emeritus''), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and independence activis ...

and was elected as its first President.

Later life

Reddiar resigned from the Congress Reform Committee (which had been renamed as

Indian National Democratic Congress {{Use Indian English, date=July 2020 The Congress Reform Committee (CRC) was formed by a group of dissidents that left the Indian National Congress in the Madras State. The CRC was led by C. Rajagopalachari, who had been defeated by Kamaraj in th ...

) when Rajagopalachari founded the

Swatantra Party The Swatantra Party was an Indian classical liberal political party, that existed from 1959 to 1974. It was founded by C. Rajagopalachari in reaction to what he felt was the Jawaharlal Nehru-dominated Indian National Congress's increasingly soci ...

in 1959. Reddiar died of heart-attack on 14 January 1966 at the age of 56. Indian National Congress politicians from Tamil Nadu 1909 births 1966 deaths Date of birth missing Place of birth missing Place of death missing {{TamilNadu-INC-politician-stub