Cheppudira Muthana Poonacha was the Chief Minister of

Coorg Kodagu district () (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 ...

, Minister in

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

State, Member of Parliament (

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

and

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

), Union Railway Minister of India and

Governor of Madhya Pradesh The governor of Madhya Pradesh is the nominal head of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The governor is appointed by the president of India. There are 22 governors. Below is a list of governors of the Central Provinces and Berar and the pre ...

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 non violent civil disobedience in colonial India, led by Mahatma Gandhi. The 24-day march lasted from 12 March 1930 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, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

party in

Politics

In 1947

was a separate state in South

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

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, 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 (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 ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

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 Mangaluru (), formerly called Mangalore ( ), is a major industrial port city in the Indian state of Karnataka and on the west coast of India. It is located between the Laccadive Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bengaluru, the st ...

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.

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, 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