VS Achuthanandan, former Kerala chief minister and CPI-M icon, dies at 101

VS Achuthanandan, former Kerala chief minister and CPI-M icon, dies at 101

Mangalore Today News Network

Thiruvananthapuram, July 21, 2025: Former Kerala chief minister VS Achuthanandan, one of the last surviving comrades of the CPI(M)’s founding generation, passed away at the age 101, the party said on Monday.

The health of former veteran Communist leader VS Achuthanandan remained critical, with chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPI(M) leaders visiting him in the hospital on Monday.

Apart from the chief minister, finance minister KN Balagopal, and party leaders, including the state secretary had visited the hospital to see Achuthanandan on Monday afternoon, PTI news agency quoted sources as saying.

VS Achuthanandan was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram since last month, following a cardiac arrest on June 23.

Who was VS Achuthanandan

Achuthanandan was a towering figure in Kerala politics and was not seen in the public light as much since his stroke in October 2019.

Born on October 20, 1923, in Alappuzha district’s Punnapra, Vellikakath Sankaran Achuthanandan served as the Kerala chief minister from 2006 to 2011.

A lifelong campaigner for social justice and workers’ rights, Achuthanandan was one of the last surviving member of the group that founded the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1964, following the vertical split in the undivided Communist Party.

Achuthanandan was a seven-time MLA and had contested 10 elections during his political career. Of the ten elections, he lost only three. He also lost his first stint in electoral politics, where he had contested from the Ambalapuzha assembly constituency in his native Alappuzha.

Achuthanandan served as the CPI(M)’s state secretary for 12 years from 180 to 1992, during which the organisation’s roots grew and became a safe shore for the working classes and the marginalised.

In the 2011 assembly elections, the success of VS’ regime was evident as the LDF secured 68 of the state’s 140 seats, just two short of the majority mark. Opposition UDF’s came to power under Oommen Chandy.

And though VS Achuthanandan campaigned for LDF at the age of 93 in the 2016 polls as well, winning from the Malampuzha constituency, the party cited health concerns and passed the baton to Pinarayi Vijayan.