Phanindranath Rangarajan Kumaramangalam was a minister in the Union Cabinet. He was born on May 12, 1952. Ranga, as he was popularly known, not only brought a lot of prestige to the Tamil Nadu BJP, which was a political non-entity until a couple of years ago, he also gave the state unit a high profile as one of the most articulate ministers in the federal cabinet.
He was one of the founding members of the National Students’ Union of India. He shifted his base to Chennai and began practicing labour law. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984 from Salem. He retained this seat in 1989 and 1991. He became the Minister of State for Law, Justice and Company Affairs in the Cabinet of P. V Narasimha Rao. Later he revolted and founded the Congress (T) along with Arjun Singh and N.D. Tiwari.
Then Ranga joined the B.J.P. in 1997 and became the Union Minister for Power in 1998. On August 23, 2000, the charismatic leader passed away leaving behind a void in the politics of Tamil Nadu.