Ernakulam: Kerala legislator and Congress leader P T Thomas is no more.
He passed away at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, on Wednesday morning. He had been undergoing treatment for cancer there for the past one month.
Thomas was 71.
He breathed his last at 10.15 am. The body will be brought to Ernakulam on Tuesday evening.
He represented the Thrikkakara constituency in the current Kerala Legislative Assembly. He was also serving as one of three working presidents of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee.
Thomas had previously represented the Idukki constituency in the Lok Sabha once and the Thodupuzha constituency in the Legislative Assembly two times.
Earlier he had served as the editor and managing director of the 'Veekshanam', the mouthpiece of the Indian National Congress.
Thomas was also an author and an environmental activist.
Early life, career
Thomas was born on December 12, 1950, in Upputhode near Rajamudy in Idukki district as the son of Puthiyaparambil Thomas and Annamma. He completed his education from Newman College, Thodupuzha, Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram, Maharaja's College, Ernakulam, and the Government Law College in Ernakulam.
He started his political career with the Kerala Students Union (KSU), the students' wing of Congress, while he was a school student. Thomas rose to the positions of KSU Idukki district president, state general secretary and state president. He was selected as the state general secretary of the Youth Congress in 1980. In 2017, he became the president of Idukki District Congress Committee.
He had also served as a member of the KPCC executive committee, All-India Congress Committee (AICC), State Library Council executive council and the Kerala University senate.
He won the Assembly Elections from Thodupuzha in 1991 and 2001 and Thrikkara in 2016 and 2021. He represented Idukki in the Lok Sabha after winning the elections in 2009.
Thomas had been a strong advocate of environment conservation. He had supported the Gadgil Commission (Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel) report despite strong opposition from different quarters.
He is survived by wife Uma Thomas, sons Vishnu Thomas and Vivek Thomas.