Mr. Subramaniam, who joined the Congress along with the late E.V.K. Sampath in the 1960s, was a member of the Tamil Nadu Assembly representing Attur constituency in Salem district for two terms.
While he was elected as an independent candidate in 1952, in 1957 he won on a DravidaMunnetraKazhagam ticket. He was the TNCC president from 1980 to 1983 and the Opposition leader of the Legislative council from 1984 till it was dissolved in 1986 by the then All-India Anna DravidaMunnetraKazhagam Government.
When the late Sivaji Ganesan floated his own political party TamizhagaMunnetraMunnani in 1989 after quitting the Congress, Mr. Subramaniam joined him and served as the working president till he returned to the Congress. He contested unsuccessfully from the South Chennai Parliamentary constituency in 1998.
Subramaniam died on April 11, 2005