Congress stalwart K Karunakaran, is dead

An era in Kerala politics came to an end on Thursday with the passing away of its four times Chief Minister and Congress veteran K Karunakaran. He died around 530 pm in a hospital here, hospital sources said.

The senior leader, who was 93, was hospitalised on Dec 10. He was later put on ventilator support. He suffered a stroke and died, reports said.

He is survived by daughter Padmaja Venugopal and son Muraleedharan.

The entire political world mourned the death of the politician known as “Leader” in Kerala.

“He will always be remembered as people’s leader,” said E Ahmed, an MP from Kerala.

The four times Kerala chief minister was suffering from various old age ailments of late.

Born on July 5, 1918 as Kannoth Karunakaran Maaraar, the Congress patriarch of the state was a freedom fighter and a trade unionist.

He was a founding member of the trade union INTUC and gave it, its present shape as one of the largest trade union bodies of the world.

He was elected a record seven times to the Kerala Legislative Assembly between 1965 and 1995 and served as Chief Minister four times.

Often accused of promoting nepotism in politics, he was also fondly called “Leader” by the Congress workers.

He was also a central minister and also the home ministry of Kerala during the black period of Emergency in 1975.

Karunakaran gave up his school education for politics and freedom struggle and trade unionism. He courted arrest several times.

Karunakaran is the founder of United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1970 in Kerala.

He was always close the Gandhi family, from Jawaharlal Nehru to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

As a veteran Parliamentarian, whose career stretches over five decades, Karunakaran has been elected three times to Rajya Sabha and toLok Sabha twice.

He was a member of Rajya Sabha during 1995-97, 1997?98 and 2004-2005. He has been elected to Lok Sabha fromThiruvananthapuram in 1998 and from Mukundapuram Constituency in 1999. Karunakaran served as the Minister for Industries in the Union Cabinet for one year in 1995.

On 1 May 2005, Karunakaran formed a new party in Kerala National Congress (Indira). Later, the new party was renamed to Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran).

Karunakaran merged his party with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), despite opposition from many senior leaders like T. M. Jacob who has since left the party. K Karunakaran and his daughter Padmaja returned to their parent party (Indian National Congress) following a spilt .

However his son Muraleedharan dissociated himself from his father and continued in NCP.

The veteran leader’s funeral would be held in Thrissur.