
Darling of the masses, ruthless organiser, fiery Opp leader: ‘Comrade VS', former Kerala chief minister, dies at 101
He had been staying away from public life since 2019, when he suffered a stroke. Last Monday, he was admitted to a hospital following a cardiac arrest, and had been on life support system since then.
Achuthanandan was one of the 32 leaders of the undivided Communist Party of India to walk out in 1964 and form the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
He served as Kerala chief minister from 2006 to 2011, and as Opposition leader for three terms — 1991-1996, 2001-2006 and 2011-2016.
In his political life spanning eight decades, Achuthanandan became known as an icon of relentless fighting spirit. Starting from the pre-Independence period, his career has been closely interwoven with the socio-political history of modern Kerala.
A politician shaped by struggles and agitation, the Communist luminary donned different mantles in the Left movement and society at large. At different points in his life, he has been an organiser of grassroots workers, an underground revolutionary, an election manager, civil society's conscience keeper, his party's crowd-puller, a public interest litigant, an anti-corruption crusader, and a voice for green movements. He maintained a streak of rebellion throughout his political life.
He was CPI(M) state secretary from 1980 to 1992, the period when the state settled into coalition politics. He also served as convener of the Left Democratic Front from 1996 to 2000.
Born on October 20, 1923, at Punnapra village in Alappuzha district, Achuthanandan lost his mother, Accamma, when he was just four and his father, Sankaran, when he was 11.
The next year, he dropped out of class 7 and started working at elder brother Gangadharan's tailoring shop, which regularly saw locals dropping in for informal chats on politics.
Over the years, he developed an interest in politics himself, and joined the Travancore State Congress. After he turned 17, he became a member of the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI).
The teen communist was deputed to work among the fishermen, toddy-tappers and coconut tree climbers of Alappuzha, his home district.
The first break in his political career came in 1940, when he joined a coir factory in Alappuzha. There, Communist leader Comrade P Krishna Pillai urged him to bring the workers closer to the movement and urge them to fight for their rights.
The Punnapra-Vayalar uprising of October 1946 was another defining event in the making of the organiser in VS. He spurred coir workers to fight against the plan of Travancore Diwan C P Ramaswami Iyer for an independent state, separated from the Indian Union. At the behest of the party, he went underground to evade arrest by the Diwan's police. While hiding in Poonjar, he was nabbed by police and was subjected to brutal torture. He was later imprisoned for nearly five years during and after the Independence struggle.
In the meantime, Achuthanandan had risen through the ranks to the leadership of the CPI. He became a member of the CPI State Committee in 1954, and three years later, was promoted to the State Secretariat.
When the first Communists government took office in Kerala in 1957, Achuthanadan headed the party in unbifurcated Kollam district, winning nine out of 11 Assembly seats in the elections. Realising his ability to run the campaign machinery, the party dispatched Achuthanandan, then 35, to manage the 1958 by-election held at the high ranges of Devikulam in Idukki.
When the CPI was divided in 1964 as a fallout of the prolonged inner-party struggle over political strategy, VS was one of the 32 national council members to walk out of the meeting, leading to the formation of the CPI(M). The others included Joyti Basu, A K Gopalan, EMS Namboodiripad, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, and E K Nayanar.
VS tried to start his legislative career during the 1965 Assembly election, contesting from the Ambalapuzha constituency, but lost. However, in 1967 and 1970, he won from the same seat.
During the Emergency, he was arrested and jailed for 21 months.
In 1980, when the state turned into a laboratory for coalition politics, VS was elected as state secretary of the CPI(M) — a post he held for 12 years until 1992.
His time as party state secretary was marked by traits of uncompromising political stubbornness. In 1986, M V Raghavan, then a powerful leader from the party citadel of Kannur, was ousted for his efforts to get the Muslim League to join the Left Front. In 1994, VS was again instrumental in the dismissal of firebrand leader K R Gouri Amma.
In 1991, Achuthanandan became the Leader of the Opposition. However, while the party returned to power in 1996, he lost the election in party stronghold Mararikulam in Alappuzha in a shock result.
The electoral setback of 1996 and the failure to retain the post of party state secretary after 1992 left Achuthanandan fighting multiple battles within the party in the following years.
In the state conference held in 1998, VS virtually decimated a rival group in the party's trade union wing, CITU, demonstrating that he retained his clout to dictate terms within the party.
Changing equations led to a redrawing of battle lines within the party, and for around 15 years starting from the early 2000s, CPI(M) saw recurring bouts of a feud between Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan. The power struggle between the two giants of the party came with undercurrents of personal animosity and ideological differences.
With every passing year, Achuthanandan was losing ground in the party to Vijayan. However, in civil society, Achuthanandan was winning hearts, emerging as a crowd puller and championing several social issues.
His term as the Leader of Opposition between 2001 and 2006 was a watershed moment for VS's political career. From being known as a ruthless Communist, he transformed into a darling of the masses. VS plunged into every social issue, toured across the state, visited the sites of agitations and stood with mass sentiments on all issues.
In the 2006 Assembly elections, the octogenarian was instrumental in ensuring a landslide victory for the Left Democratic Front.
He was made chief minister, and his term was a stormy one, with the government being buffeted by intra-party bickering and conflicting stands on policy matters. Even as Achuthanandan resurrected his image as a crusader against social evils and corruption, all those who stood with the CM in the party were either silenced or shunted out.
In the 2011 elections, too, VS led the LDF to a photo finish, leaving the Congress with 72 seats in the 140-strong Assembly. In 2016, at the age of 92, VS was in the election fray, leading the LDF's campaign. Despite age not being on his side, VS longed for another innings at the helm in the event of an LDF win.
However, it was Vijayan who the party picked as chief minister in 2016. VS was given Cabinet rank and accommodated as the chairman of the state Administrative Reforms Commission from 2016 to 2021.
As a legislator from Malampuzha constituency between 2001 to 2021, VS had been an active presence in the state Assembly until he fell ill in 2019.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


India.com
26 minutes ago
- India.com
Speaking For Gaza Not Patriotism: Bombay HC Rejects CPI(M) Plea For Protest On Palestine Issue
The Bombay High Court on Friday dismissed a petition filed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) seeking to protest the alleged "genocide" in Gaza by Israel. A division bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Gautam Ankhad stated that speaking for Gaza and Palestine is not patriotism and asked the petitioner to instead raise voices for causes within India. The bench also questioned why the petitioner does not focus on issues in their own country. "Our country has several issues to deal with... We don't want anything like this. I am sorry to say, you are all short-sighted... You are looking at Gaza and Palestine... Why don't you do something for our own country? Be patriots... Speaking for Gaza and Palestine is not patriotism... Speak up for the causes in our own country... Practice what you preach..." Live Law quoted Justice Ghuge as saying. The bench also expressed curiosity about why the party wants to protest something happening thousands of miles away rather than issues within India. "We are curious... You have no issues with respect to our own country... something productive for our own country... They are fighting 1,000s of miles away, and you are showing concern for Palestine, Gaza, etc. You can take up social and local issues like flooding, drainage getting blocked, illegal parking... Why aren't you protesting such issues?" Live Law quoted Justice Ghuge as saying. The bench asked the petitioner, "Do we have so much time to hear such a case when hundreds of cases of our citizens are listed?" "Do we have so much time to spend hearing such a matter when we have hundreds of cases of our citizens listed? Are these not our constitutional issues?" Live Law quoted Justice Ghuge as saying. Thousands of people in Gaza have lost their lives due to Israel's ground offensive and air strikes, which commenced in October 2023 as a reaction to Hamas' attacks on Israeli cities.


The Hindu
26 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Bihar SIR: Almost 66 lakh voters may not make it to draft electoral roll
Almost 66 lakh voters are unlikely to make it to the draft electoral roll to be published on August 1, according to Election Commission of India data released on Friday (July 25, 2025), the last day for submission of enumeration forms in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process. Bihar had over 7.89 crore voters according to the 2025 electoral rolls. The forms of 7.23 crore electors have been received and digitised, and the names of all these electors will be included in the draft electoral roll, the ECI said in a statement. The poll body said that the digitisation of forms of the remaining electors will also be completed by August 1, along with Booth Level Officer (BLO) reports. Objections by September 1 During the month-long SIR exercise, which began on June 24, the local BLOs have reported the names of approximately 22 lakh deceased electors, 7 lakh registered in more than one location, and 35 lakh who have either permanently migrated or could not be traced. In addition, the enumeration forms of approximately 1.2 lakh electors are yet to be received. Any errors can be rectified in the draft electoral roll to be published on August 1, the statement said. From August 1 to September 1, any elector or political party may fill the prescribed forms and submit claims to the EROs for any eligible elector who has been excluded, or file objections for the removal of any ineligible elector. The lists of those electors who have not filled their forms or are deceased and those who have permanently migrated have already been shared on July 20 with all 12 of Bihar's major political parties, namely the Bahujan Samaj Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Indian National Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) (Liberation), Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), National People's Party, and Aam Aadmi Party. Contentious exercise A total of 38 Deputy Electoral Officers, 243 Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), 2,976 Assistant Electoral Registration Officers, BLOs deployed at 77,895 polling booths, and volunteers participated in the exercise, along with the 12 political parties, their 38 district presidents, and the 1.60 lakh booth level agents whom they nominated. The SIR order on June 24 had said that the exercise would be carried out across the country, beginning with Bihar. Opposition parties, however, have branded the SIR as an attempt to bring in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) through a 'backdoor' route. The contentious exercise has been challenged in the Supreme Court, and a hearing is scheduled on July 28.


Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Maharashtra CM Fadnavis meets Amit Shah, Union ministers; effort to fast-track mega projects in Maharashtra
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Health Minister J P Nadda among others in New Delhi. Later the state government said the meetings were aimed at securing Centre's approval and assistance for development-oriented projects in Maharashtra. An official statement issued by the CMO described the meetings as a courtesy call. 'The CM had a meeting with Amit Shah at his office in Parliament House in Delhi where issues and projects related to development were discussed in detail,' the statement said. The Centre's three-language policy under NEP came under criticism forcing the CM to announce its revocation in the state on June 29. The state government also announced the constitution of an expert committee headed by Dr Narendra Jadhav to look into the issue afresh. According to the CMO: 'Fadnavis, during his meeting with Nirmala Sitharaman, raised mega projects in Maharashtra which are being undertaken with the help of World Bank for which Centre's permission was necessary.' Fadnavis said: 'We had an extensive discussion on externally aided projects in Maharashtra. The Finance Minister appreciated the fiscally prudent management of Maharashtra's finances and directed the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) to approve the multi-year pipeline for the following projects.' The three projects where financial assistance was sought include a) Mukhyamantri Gram Sadak Yojana: $1 billion from Asian Development Bank to connect villages with 1000+ population with core road network of the state, thereby strengthening last-mile connectivity b) Maharashtra-Strengthening Coastal Resilience and the Economy Project (M-SHORE): $500 million from World Bank to mitigate sea-level rise along the coastline using nature-based solutions, and c) Maharashtra Urban WSS & Reuse Programme: $500 million from World Bank to treat 100% of municipal wastewater and reuse it for industrial purposes. At a meeting with J P Nadda, the CM mooted a big fertilizer project in Vidarbha region. In Nagpur district, GAIL, the fertiliser department and the Maharashtra government are jointly planning to set up a 12.7 lakh tonne project worth Rs 10,000 crore. For this, the state has sought subsidy from the Centre. Nadda asked department officers to prepare a proposal for cabinet approval. Fertilizer department secretary Rajatkumar Mishra was present at the meeting. The state government has presented a proposal to Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for rural network connectivity stretching 14,000km roads. The project, estimated at Rs 22,490 crore, will be undertaken with assistance from ADB. This project will be taken up on 25 years maintenance-free model. 'This will be a very important project for rural Maharashtra and farmers as it will enhance rural connectivity, ' Chauhan said. Fadnavis urged Chauhan to give support to expedite the project. Chauhan also lauded the state government for getting maximum 30 lakh houses under Centre's chief minister also held a meeting with Niti Aayog CEO B V R Subramaniam and member Rajiv Gaoba. Multiple projects like the use of artificial intelligence for NCD (non-communicable disease), bamboo cluster (both these projects are of $500 million), Marathwada Water Grid, Damanganga-Godavari water link and other water conservation projects (worth $1 trillion) were discussed at the meet. Linking ITIs with private industrial sector to ensure employment and catering to market demands was also discussed at the meeting.