V. S. Achuthanandan

Velikkakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan (born 20 October 1923), popularly known by his initials V. S. is an Indian politician who was the Chief Minister of Kerala from 2006 to 2011.

At 82, he was the oldest person to have assumed the office.

He is affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Born on 20 October 1923 to Sankaran and Accamma in Punnapra, Alappuzha, Travancore (part of present-day Kerala state, India), he lost his mother when he was four years old and subsequently lost his father at the age of 11.

This forced him to quit his studies after finishing 7th standard in school.

He started working by helping his elder brother in a village tailoring shop.

Later he took up the job of meshing coir to make ropes at a coir factory.

He entered politics through trade union activities and joined State Congress in 1938.

In 1940, he became a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI).

During his 40 years as a politician he was imprisoned for five years and six months and was in hiding for four and half years.

He was a state secretariat member of the CPI in 1957.

He is the only living among the 32 members who left the CPI National Council in 1964 to form the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Achuthanandan was in the forefront of the land struggles in Kerala starting with the Alappuzha declaration in 1970 demanding implementation of the Land Reforms Act passed by the EMS Government in 1967.

Later his activities as the leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly had evoked good public response.

He was the Secretary of the Kerala State Committee between 1980 and 1992.

Achuthanandan was a member of the CPI(M) Politburo from 1985 until July 2009, when he was reverted to the Central Committee of the party owing to his ideological dispositions.

Achuthanandan initiated various actions as the Chief Minister, including the demolition drive in Munnar which claimed back acres of illegally occupied land, the demolition drive in Kochi M. G. Road which claimed back the long lost shoulder of the road, anti-piracy drive against film-piracy, his struggle against the Lottery mafia in the state.

He was instrumental in convicting former minister R. Balakrishna Pillai on charges of corruption.

Achuthanandan also took the lead in promoting free software in the state, and especially in adopting free software in the public education system of the state.

He was a member of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau since 1985 until he was removed as a party disciplinary action.

He is the senior most leader of CPI(M) in India.

During the assembly elections held in Kerala in April–May 2006, VS Achuthanandan defeated Satheesan Pacheeni of the United Democratic Front by a margin of 20,017 votes in Malampuzha constituency in Palakkad district.

He was sworn in as Chief Minister of Kerala on 18 May 2006, with his 21-member cabinet.

Aged 82 years and 7 months at time, he was the oldest Chief Minister of Kerala, and one of the oldest in the whole of India.

It is noticeable that he had been denied a party ticket to contest elections just two months before he was sworn in.

In what can be considered as a near repeat of the 2006 pre-election build-up, the Politbureau of CPI-M impressed upon the state leadership to permit VS Achuthanandan to contest elections for the April 2011 Assembly election in Kerala.

VS Achuthanandan contested from the Malampuzha Constituency and won with a margin of around 25,000 votes.

On 12 July 2009, the CPI(M) Polit bureau and Central Committee removed him from the PB for his stands taken in relation to the accusation and legal procedures against Pinarayi Vijayan in his reported involvement in the Lavlin bribery.

After this election, Achuthanandan was considered the man behind the Uprising of LDF after the 2009 Parliament and 2010 Municipal election losses.

He became the 11th Chief Minister of Kerala.

The 2011 Kerala Legislative Assembly election, proved to be one of the closest in Kerala's history, with the UDF beating the LDF by a margin of 4 seats.

The CPI(M) denied a seat to Achuthanandan for the 2011 assembly election.

Protests took place across the state and even on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and via SMS.

On 12 May 2013, three of his personal staff V.K. Sasidharan (additional private secretary), A. Suresh (personal assistant) and K. Balakrishnan (press secretary) were ousted by the Politburo, which was entrusted by the CPI(M) central committee to decide on the action to be taken against them.

They were expelled on charges of leaking information to media, according to CPI(M).

With the decision, Achuthanandan's arch-rival and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI(M)) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan appears to have won.

The state committee of the party where Vijayan has a huge majority also wanted Achuthanandan to be removed from the post of leader of opposition but this was not done.

"This is a clipping of the wings of Achuthanandan", said K.M. Shahjahan.

He served as the chairman of Administrative reforms in Kerala with state cabinet rank from 2016 to 2021.

He has served as Leader of the Opposition for 15 years which makes him the longest serving Leader of the Opposition in Kerala Legislative Assembly.