Communist Party of India (Marxist) veteran, freedom fighter and former Chief Minister of Kerala, V. S. Achuthanandan passed away on Monday at the age of 101. He was seriously ill for the past few days and was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Kerala after suffering a cardiac arrest last month. A veteran communist and freedom fighter, he was a strong and influential figure in Kerala’s communist movement and remained a prominent presence in state politics for many years.
His Early Life
Born on 20 October 1923, in Punnapra, Alappuzha, (Kerala) to Sankaran and Accamma, Velikkakathu Sankaran, popularly known as VS, was an Indian politician and a senior leader of the CPI-M. He served as the Chief Minister of Kerala from 2006 to 2011, becoming the oldest person to assume the office at the age of 82. From 2016 to 2021, he held the position of Chairman of the Administrative Reforms Commission in Kerala with cabinet rank. Achuthanandan also served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Legislative Assembly for a total of 15 years, making him the longest-serving person in that role in the state’s history.
Achuthanandan stepped away from public life after suffering a minor stroke in 2019. Since then, he had been living with the support of his family at the home of his son, V. Arun Kumar, in Thiruvananthapuram.
He lost his mother at the age of four and his father when he was eleven. As a result, he quit school after completing the seventh standard. Between 1934 and 1938, he worked with his elder brother at a tailoring shop and also at a coir factory making ropes. He entered politics through his involvement in trade union activities.
Achuthanandan’s political journey begin in 1938, when he joined the stated Congress. In 1940, he become a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI).
In October 1946, during the Punnapra-Vayalar uprising against Diwan C. P. Ramaswami Iyer’s plan for an independent Travancore, Achuthanandan went underground to organise peasants and workers. He was arrested on October 28 in Poonjar and brutally tortured in police custody, so severely that officers believed he had died. He was lodged in Thiruvananthapuram Central Jail when India became independent on 15 August 1947. In 1952, he became the Communist Party of India’s Alappuzha division secretary, and by 1956, he was promoted to CPI district secretary.
Kerala’s Chief Minister
During the 2006 Kerala Assembly elections, Achuthanandan won from the Malampuzha constituency in Palakkad district, defeating UDF candidate Satheesan Pacheeni by a margin of 20,017 votes.
He was sworn in as the 11th Chief Minister of Kerala on 18 May 2006, along with a 21-member cabinet. At 82 years and 7 months, he became the oldest Chief Minister of Kerala and one of the oldest in India. Interestingly, just two months before the election, his party had initially denied him a ticket to contest. Later, on 12 July 2009, the CPI (M) removed him from the Politburo for his take on the SNC Lavalin case involving party leader Pinarayi Vijayan.
As chief minister of Kerala, Achuthanandan initiated several key schemes, including a drive to remove encroachments from Munnar, promotion of free-software in the public education system, infrastructure projects such as the Vallarpadam container terminal and expansion of Technopark.
He played a key role in land reform movements, the Pannapra-Vayalar uprising and the formation of the CPM in 1964. He later became the party’s state secretary and was then inducted into the politburo.
