Chennai

An advocate of Madras High Court, he hailed from a family of legal professionals. His father B S Sivagurunathan was a district magistrate. His uncle B Somasundaram was a HC judge.

The advocate politician had also served as a Rajya Sabha MP. A close associate of former Congress veteran G K Moopanar, Gnanadesikan had quit the TNCC first in 1996 to join Moopanar when he floated TMC. He demonstrated his loyalty to the Moopanar’s later when he quit the post of TNCC chief to join Vasan who revived TMC after the Congress was unseated in 2014.