Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan (born 20 October 1957) is an Indian politician and businessman who has served as the governor of Maharashtra since 31 July 2024. He previously served as the governor of Jharkhand from February 2023 to July 2024.[8][9]
Since the age of 16, Radhakrishnan has been associated with organisations like the RSS and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (Jan Sangh).[16][17]
Political career
In 1974, he was elected to the Jan Sangh's state executive committee. He joined the BJP after it was founded in 1980, becoming an aide to Atal Bihari Vajpayee.[18]
In 1998, Radhakrishnan was elected to the Lok Sabha, representing Coimbatore; he defeated incumbent M. Ramanathan of the DMK. He was one of 3 BJP candidate's to win in Tamil Nadu following the party's alliance with the AIADMK, a first for the BJP.[10] His election to Parliament was in the aftermath of the 1998 Coimbatore bombings.[19] He won by a margin of over 150,000 votes in 1998 and by a margin of 55,000 in the 1999 elections.[20][21][22] He was among the BJP's state leaders who worked on forming an alliance with the AIADMK in 2004 after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ended its ties with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).[23][16] He was also part of a parliamentary delegation to the United Nations, addressing the 58th session of the UN General Assembly on 20 October 2003. He spoke about strengthening the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance. His tenure in the Parliament of India ended following his defeat in the 2004 general election to K. Subbarayan of the Communist Party of India.[24][17] He was a member of the Parliamentary Committee for Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) from 1998 to 2004 and a member of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee for Finance.[17]
He was the state president for Bharatiya Janata Party, Tamil Nadu from 2004 to 2006. As the president, he took a rath yatra for 93 days, advocating the linkage of Indian rivers, eradicating untouchability, and campaigning against terrorism in India. He covered all the constituencies of Tamil Nadu during his journey and faced criticism from the DMK. He was also involved in the organising of the Bharatiya Janata Party state unit in Kerala during the 2000s.[25][26]
In 2012, Radhakrishnan faced court arrest in Mettupalayam for protesting inaction against culprits who had assaulted an RSS activist.[27]
He was named as the BJP candidate for Coimbatore in 2014, securing second place with over 3,89,000 votes; the highest among Tamil Nadu's BJP candidates, and losing by the smallest margin among all candidates in Tamil Nadu. He was named the party's Coimbatore candidate once again for the 2019 general election.[28][16]
On 25 November 1985, Radhakrishnan married R. Sumathi. The couple has 2 children. He is a member of Lions Clubs International and enjoys playing cricket, volleyball, and long-distance running.[40][41]
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