Veteran Congress leader and former Kerala Chief Minister K Karunakaran, who dominated the politics of the state for more than five decades, passed away at a private hospital here today, United News of India (UNI) reported.
Mr Karunakaran, 92, who served as Chief Minister of the State four times and also had a stint as Union Industry Minister, was in hospital for the past two weeks for treatment of severe breathing problems and fever. His condition worsened after a suffered a stroke yesterday, the report said.
Mr Karunakaran breathed his last around 5.30 pm today. He is survived by his politician-son, K Muraleedharan, a former Congress MP but now estranged from the party, and his daughter Padmaja Venugopal. Mr Karunakaran's wife Kalyanikutty Amma had predeceased him some 15 years ago.
His body will be cremated in Thrissur tomorrow, Congress sources said. Before being taken to Thrissur, the body would be kept at the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office and the Senate Hall of the Secretariat here tomorrow for the public to pay homage.
Senior Congress leaders in the state and a large number of his supporters rushed to the hospital as soon as they heard the news.
Kannoth Karunakaran was born on July 5, 1918 to K Ramunni Marar and Kalyani Amma at Chirakkal in Kannur district.
He gave up his school education to plunge into politics as a member of the Congress in 1935, He had participated in the freedom struggle and intrade union activities.
He was the architect of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) that was formed in Kerala in 1970 and had made a significant contribution to the development of the state.
He first became Chief Minister of Kerala on March 3, 1977 but had to resign a month later following certain references made by the Kerala High Court in what is known as the Rajan case, in which a student of the Regional Engineering College at Calict, who had participated in protests against the Emergency, was allegedly killed by the police at the Kakkayam police camp.
The case related to the period when Mr Karunakaran was the Home Minister of the State (197-77) in the Congress-CPI coalition government headed by the late C Achutha Menon.
His second term as Chief Minister was from December 28, 1981 but this innings too did not last very long. He resigned on March 17, 1982 whe theKerala Congress (M) withdrew support to his government.
After mid-term elections to the State Assembly, he assumed office again on May 24, 1982 and continued till 1987.
His fourth innings was from June 24, 1991 to March 16, 1995 when he made way for A K Antony.
Mr Karunakaran was elected thrice to the Rajya Sabha (1995-97, 1997-98 and 2004-05) and twice to the Lok Sabha, from Thiruvananthapuram in 1998 and from Mukundapuram in the following year.
The years that followed saw him getting into tussles with his party colleagues in the state and with the High Command in Delhi, with the party finally suspending his son Muraleedharan and Mr Karunakaran launching a political outfit, the Democratic Indira Congress. Later, he merged the party with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Ultimately, Mr Karunakaran and his daughter returned to the Congress.
In his early years, Mr Karunakaran served as a member of the Trichur Municipal Corporation i 1945-47 and was later a member of the Cochin Legislative Assembly in 1948-49 and then of the Travancore-Cochin Legislative Assembly from 1952-54.
No comments:
Post a Comment