Deiva Zivarattinam was an India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n politician. He represented Pondicherry (then a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 colony) in the French Constituent Assembly election in 1945.

Zivarattinam studied law and became a lawyer. He was appointed to the provisional Constituent Assembly, that had been assembled by Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

 in Algiers

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

 in November 1943. His mandate was validated on January 13, 1944. Zivarattinam was included in the Overseas Commission of the assembly. At the time, Zivarattinam's health was weak. On November 7, 1944 he moved to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 to where the provisional Constituent Assembly had shifted. During the Paris sessions, he participated in Overseas Commission, Labour and Social Affairs Commission, Permanent Coordination Commission and the Muslim Affairs Commission.

In the 1945 French Constituent Assembly election

French legislative election, 1945

A legislative election was held in France on 21 October 1945 to elect a constituent assembly to draft a constitution for a Fourth French Republic. 79.83% of voters participated. Women and soldiers were allowed to vote...

, Zivarattinam stood as a candidate of the Social Democratic Union for the French India

French India

French India is a general name for the former French possessions in India These included Pondichéry , Karikal and Yanaon on the Coromandel Coast, Mahé on the Malabar Coast, and Chandannagar in Bengal...

 seat. He won the seat, having gotten 22,171 votes (46.8%). He sat in the Democratic and Socialist Resistance (RDS) group. In the assembly he was a member of the Overseas Commission and the Justice and General Legislation Commission. In the Overseas Commission (chaired by Lamine Guèye), he became one of the secretaries.

Zivarattinam lost his seat in the June 1946 elections

French legislative election, June 1946

Legislative elections were held in France on 2 June 1946 to elect the second post-war National Assembly designated to prepare a new Constitution...

, being defeated by Lambert Savarane. Zivarattinam received merely 18 votes.

Towards the end of French rule of Pondicherry, he led a political party called the Town Congress. The Town Congress favoured integration with India.