S. D. Somasundaram
Indian politician
Thiru SD Somasundaram (25 February 1930 - 6 December 2001) also known as S.D.S., was a political leader and administrator who served as a cabinet minister of the Tamil Nadu state.
Early life and background
Somasundaram was born in the village of Sendankadu near Pattukottai into an agricultural family. He was an active social worker and was associated with various social organizations. He pursued a bachelor of engineering (BEng) in mechanical engineering from Annamalai University. He was an athlete and played football in college. He also participated in a marathon race, representing Tamil Nadu. After graduating, Thiru started working as an assistant engineer in the public works department.
Thiru S.D.S. began his political career as an activist of the Dravidar Kazhagam in 1947 and joined the D.M.K. when the late C.N. Annadurai founded the party in 1949. He was first elected to parliament from the Thanjavur Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu in 1967 after defeating R. Venkataraman of the Indian National Congress, the former president of India. He was re-elected from the same constituency in 1971 and 1977 on DMK and AIADMK tickets, respectively.
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This entry incorporates text from “S. D. Somasundaram” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.