Kottayam: Veteran Kerala Congress leader Scaria Thomas, the former Member of Parliament representing the Kottayam constituency in Kerala, passed away in Kochi on Thursday.
The 74-year old leader passed away at about 1.30 pm owing to post-Covid complications.
Though he had turned negative for the disease his condition worsened after he contracted fungal pneumonia.
Scaria Thomas was elected to the Lok Sabha twice as a Kerala Congress candidate in the 1977 and 1980 general elections.
In the 1984 Lok Sabha election he was stunned by CPM's fresh face Suresh Kurup. This was one of the two constituencies the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) had lost then in Kerala, the other being Mavelikkara. Congress had won a landslide victory in this general election held soon after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
After that shock defeat Scaria Thomas was in a sort of political wilderness. His desperate attempts to regain political relevance fizzled out in the later years.
He formed his own party called the Kerala Congress (Scaria Thomas) in 2014 after he parted ways with Kerala Congress peer P C Thomas. The Kerala Congress (Scaria Thomas) faction came into existence as the duo opposed the merger of the Kerala Congress parties led by K M Mani and P J Joseph.
Since its formation, Scaria Thomas had been at the helm of his own splinter party as its chairman until his death. This outfit is a constituent of the Left Democratic Front. He had moved to the LDF camp soon after parting ways with P C Thomas, who then went on to join the NDA.
In the upcoming Kerala Legislative Assembly polls the party has not been allotted a constituency to contest by the LDF.
He was the chairman of the Kerala State Industrial Enterprises Ltd under the state Industries department.
Condoling the demise of Thomas, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said as a member of Lok Sabha he could raise the voice of Kerala in Parliament.
He is survived by wife Lalitha, daughters Nirmala, Anitha, Latha and son K T Scaria.
