R. S. Raja Kannappan, formerly known as S. Kannappan, is an Indian Tamil Politician and Minister for Backward Classes Welfare and the Khadii and Village Industries currently and also former Minister of Transport, Nationalised Transport, Motor Vehicles Act in the period 2021- March 2022 and also former Minister of Public Works, Highways and Electricity during 1991–1996. He joined the party DMK in Feb. 2020.

Political career

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 an

Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK) is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is a Dravidian party founded by the former chief mini ...

(ADMK) candidate from Tiruppattur (194) constituency in 1991 election. He served as minister of Public Works during 1991–1996. He later founded the Makkal Tamil Desam (MTD) party. The MTD contested the 2001 election as a junior partner in 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) led front. In 2006, Kannappan dissolved his party and joined the DMK. He contested and won the 2006 election from the Ilaiyangudi constituency as a DMK candidate. In February 2009 he resigned from DMK and as an MLA. He joined the ADMK and contested the

2009 Indian general election 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

s from the Sivaganga parliamentary constituency. He was defeated by 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 ...

(INC) candidate

P. Chidambaram Palaniappan Chidambaram (born 16 September 1945), better known as P. Chidambaram, is an Indian politician and lawyer who currently serves as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee ...

in a close election. Kannappan claimed that the BJP is attempting to saffronise the southern districts and polarise the voters on religious lines. He blamed the AIADMK leadership for aiding this situation. He then quit the AIADMK and decided to support the DMK-led front in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Kannappan — together with his wife, mother, two brothers, two sisters and mother-in-law — were among several former ADMK legislators charged with having assets disproportionate to their known income by

Tamil Nadu Police Tamil Nadu Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is over 150 years old and is the fifth largest state police force in India.

in June 2005. The issue had first been investigated in 1996 and all charges were dismissed by the courts in 2015 due to lack of evidence, by which time his wife and mother had died.

References

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam politicians State cabinet ministers of Tamil Nadu Living people Tamil Nadu MLAs 2006–2011 Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam politicians Year of birth missing (living people) Tamil Nadu MLAs 1991–1996 Tamil Nadu MLAs 2021–2026 {{AIADMK-politician-stub