A veteran Congress loyalist, E.M.Sudarsana Natchiappan, the new union minister of state for commerce and industry, had once humbled present Finance Minister P. Chidambaram at the hustings.
The 65-year-old, curly-haired Natchiappan had defeated Chidambaram at the Sivaganga constituency in 1999 Lok Sabha polls when the latter had floated his own party.
He will be now the second person in the central government from Sivaganga after Chidambaram.
A Supreme Court advocate, Natchiappan entered Rajya Sabha June 2010 and his term comes to an end in June 2016.
Natchiappan has been member of various consultative committees of parliament, and as member of the upper house, raised questions on various subjects like shipping, power, petroleum and natural gas, Sri Lanka and others.
"He is an experienced and an affable person," Congress MP S.S.Ramasubbu told IANS, while another party leader noted he was one of the few senior Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu who had not deserted the party even once.
Widely travelled, Natchiappan has written several books and has a keen interest in activities pertaining to education, agriculture, human resource development, trade unions, human rights, the World Trade Organisation and international relations.
Married to E.M.S.Devaki, the Natchiappans have two sons and one daughter.
