Ponnambala Thyaga Rajan Palanivel Rajan (27 February 1932 – 20 May 2006) was an Indian politician. Born into an aristocratic landlord Kondaikatti Thondaimandala Vellala family in Uthamapalayam. He did his schooling from Trinity College, Kandy, Sri Lanka. He graduated in political science from

Madras Christian College Madras Christian College (MCC) is a liberal arts and sciences college in Chennai, India. Founded in 1837, MCC is one of Asia's oldest extant colleges. The college is affiliated to the University of Madras but functions as an autonomous institu ...

and then studied law at Madras Law College. He was a practising lawyer before entering politics in 1967 when he joined the

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 ...

(DMK). Rajan was first 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 ...

from

Theni Theni is a valley town situated in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu at the foothills of Western Ghats. It is the headquarters of the Theni district, located in a distance of 70km from Madurai. It is known for the large-scale trading of garlic, c ...

in 1967 and was re-elected in 1971. He was elected in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

from the Madurai West Constituency. In

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

he was defeated by 708 votes after

M. K. Alagiri Muthuvel Karunanidhi Alagiri (born 30 January 1951), commonly known as M. K. Alagiri, is an Indian politician from Tamil Nadu and was a Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers (India), Cabinet Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers from 28 ...

worked against him and other DMK candidates. He was earlier elected to the

Tamil Nadu Legislative Council Tamil Nadu Legislative Council was the upper house of the former bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It began its existence as Madras Legislative Council, the first provincial legislature for Madras Presidency. It was initia ...

. Rajan was

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from 1996 to 2001. He was elected from Madurai Central and was the Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments in the

Government of Tamil Nadu Government of Tamil Nadu is the subnational government for the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is seated at Fort St George, Chennai. The legislature of Tamil Nadu was bicameral until 1986, when it was replaced by a unicameral legislature, lik ...

at the time of his death on 20 May 2006 at the age of 74.

Madurai Kamaraj University Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) is a public state university located in Madurai city, in southern Tamil Nadu, India, established in 1966. MKU is one of the 15 universities in India with the University with Potential for Excellence status, wh ...

conferred the

Doctor of Law A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL ...

on him (

Honoris Causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

) in 1997. His father

P. T. Rajan Sir Ponnambala Thiaga Rajan (22 April 1892 – 25 September 1974) was the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency from 4 April 1936, to 24 August 1936 (143 Days). He was also the last President of the Justice Party. P. T. Rajan was born in a Thondai ...

was Chief Minister of Madras Presidency. His son,

Palanivel Thiaga Rajan Palanivel Thiagarajan (PTR) is an Indian politician and the current Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu. He was elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election in 2016 and 2021 from Madurai Central. Early life He is the son of the late P ...

is an MLA and was the finance minister of Tamil Nadu and now Minister of Information Technology and Digital Services in the

Stalin ministry M. K. Stalin ministry, is the Council of Ministers headed by M. K. Stalin that was formed after the DMK won the 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly elections. The new assembly formed was 16th Tamil Nadu Assembly. The Council assumed office ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palanivel, Rajan 1932 births Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam politicians 2006 deaths Madras Christian College alumni Speakers of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Tamil Nadu MLAs 1996–2001 Tamil Nadu MLAs 2006–2011 Alumni of Trinity College, Kandy