M. Kannappan is an Indian politician and former Union minister for Non-conventional energy sources in A. B. Vajpayee's NDA rule between 1999 and 2004

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

. He was elected to the

Tamil Nadu legislative assembly The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It has a strength of 234 members of whom are democratically elected using the First-past-the-post voting, First-past-the-post system. The pres ...

as a

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; DMK) is a political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu where it is currently the ruling party having a comfortable majority without coalition support and the union territory of Puducherry where it is curre ...

candidate from Kinathukadavu constituency in

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

, and 1972 elections. He was a minister for Hindu religious endowment boards and dairy development in the government of Tamil Nadu between 1969 and 1975. He was re-elected to cabinet in 1989 when DMK returned to power as Cabinet minister for Highways, Housing and Ports. He was also the state Transport minister in M. Karunanidhi's government. He was instrumental in reviving the DMK in western Tamil Nadu after it lost elections in the 1980s. In 1994, he had a disagreement relating to the Vaiko issue with Karunanidhi, following which he left the DMK to form a new party, the MDMK. He unsuccessfully contested the Singanallur constituency in the 1996 elections but won in 1999 when fighting the Thiruchengode parliament constituency. He became union cabinet minister forging an alliance with the BJP. In 2006,he again returned to state politics and won the Thondamuthur constituency in

Coimbatore district Coimbatore district is one of the 38 districts in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. Coimbatore is the administrative headquarters of the district. It is one of the most industrialized districts and a major textile, industrial, commercial, educ ...

. He defeated former union minister and State congress legislative party leader S. R. Balasubramaniam. Kannappan is often referred as "karotti kannappan" as he was the only person to come out boldly and take along Karunanidhi during all emergency periods when all of Karunanidhi's men even feared to talk in public. In mid-2008, when Karunanidhi was ill in hospital, the two men reconciled and Kannappan rejoined the DMK. and from Palladam constituency in 1989 election. He was elected as a

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ( 'Renaissance Dravidian Progressive Federation') is a political party active in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. It was established by Vaiko in 1994 after ...

from Thondamuthur constituency in 2006 election.

Personal life

M. K. Muthu, a son of Kannappan, followed his father into politics as a DMK member. Kannappan's grandson

Nandha ''Nandha'' is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language action drama film written and directed by Bala. The film stars Suriya in the lead role, while Rajkiran, Laila, Saravanan and Rajshree play other supporting roles. The film also marked the debut of co ...

is a popular actor who acted in films such as ''Mounam Pesiyathe'' and ''Eeram''.

Electoral performance

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kannappan, M. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam politicians Union ministers from Tamil Nadu Living people Lok Sabha members from Tamil Nadu India MPs 1999–2004 People from Namakkal district Year of birth missing (living people) Tamil Nadu MLAs 1967–1971 Tamil Nadu MLAs 1971–1976 Tamil Nadu MLAs 1989–1991 Tamil Nadu MLAs 2006–2011