E.M. Sudarsana Nachiappan, former Union Minister and senior Congress leader, passes away at 79

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E.M. Sudarsana Nachiappan. File photo | Photo Credit: G. Moorthy

Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister E.M. Sudarsana Nachiappan passed away in Sivaganga on Thursday (September 17, 2026) following a brief illness. He was 79.

A Congressman since 1969, Mr. Nachiappan rose through the ranks from his early days as the Singampunari Regional Youth Congress president to become the vice-president of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) in 2002. He also served as the party whip in Parliament.

Before making his mark in national politics, he gained widespread attention in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections by winning the Sivaganga parliamentary seat against senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram when the latter was in the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC). He served as the Congress Lok Sabha member from the Sivaganga constituency from 1999 to 2004 and as a Rajya Sabha member from 2004 to 2016.

Mr. Nachiappan’s national profile grew further when he served as the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, from 2013 to 2014, besides holding key positions across various parliamentary committees between 1999 and 2016.

He had been receiving medical care for his declining health in Sivaganga over the past few days, but passed away at his residence after the treatment proved unsuccessful.

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