C. M. Poonacha represented the Coorg state as a member of the Constituent Assembly.

[1] Two parties fought the 1952 state elections: the Takkadi ('Scales of Justice') party under veteran Gandhian Pandyanda Belliappa, who was a dominant political force and voice of Coorg with its anti-merger plank, and the Congress under C.M.

Coorg had two MPs in the Union Parliament then, besides having a state legislative body.

Later Poonacha was made Union Minister without portfolio in Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet.

He contested and won the Lok Sabha seat for the Mangalore constituency in 1969.

At that time he was the Member of Parliament representing Mangalore Lok Sabha constituency to which Coorg then belonged.

Two of his children, C. P. Belliappa and Kavery Nambisan, are well-known writers in English.