Veteran CPI(M) leader and former Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Sunday turned 96 years old, making him India's oldest active politician.
Achuthanandan, born Velikkakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan on October 23, 1923 in Alappuzha to Venthalaratha Sankaran and Akkamma, is one of the founding leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He is the only living member from Kerala among the 32 who left the CPI National Council in 1964 to form the CPI(M). He was chief minister of Kerala from 2006 to 2011, and is currently an MLA representing the Malampuzha constituency in Palakkad.
VS stepped into politics early in life, having dropped out of school after the death of his parents, and was initiated into active politics by P. Krishna Pillai, founder of the Communist movement in Kerala. After joining the CPI in 1940, VS made huge strides in Kerala's political scene, taking part in campaigns highlighting the social unrest in the state, and was at the forefront of the Punnapra-Vayalar struggle. He spent five and a half years in jail and another four in hiding.
The veteran leader continues to be a huge crowd puller, tirelessly campaigning for the party, even at this age. Kerala will witness assembly byelections in five constituencies on Monday, and VS was seen on the campaign trail till last week. The seven-time legislator is seen as a genuine and one of the most popular leaders, who is still able to excite the masses with his fiery speeches.
VS, known for his sharp wit and barbed responses, recently proved that age is just a number and his intellectual faculties are still sharp when he found himself at the receiving end of Congress leader K. Sudhakaran's criticism. Sudhakaran remarked that at VS's age, his ‘eroding brain is not expected to come up with any new reforms’. VS, in response, said that old people with dried up brains are trying to analyse his brain, and that masses will listen to thise who talk about the state's development. What more can one expect other from such dried up brains that the smell of dye’.
VS has been the the Leader of Opposition for 15 years, and is also the incumbent chairman of the Administrative Reforms Commission.
