Kanam Rajendran, powerful Left leader of Kerala, dies at 73

Popular communist leader Kanam Rajendran is no more. He was 73.

Rajendran was the state secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI). He was a powerful member of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by CPIM in Kerala. He had been away from active politics for over three months due to ill health.

Rajendran was born on November 10, 1950 in the village of Koottikkal in Kottayam district.

He began his political journey at the age of 18 while studying at the NSS College in Vazhoor. At 23, Rajendran became the state secretary of AIYF (All India Youth Fedeartion, CPI's youth wing).

Being close to his father, who worked as the manager of a plantation, Rajendran learned about the lives and struggles of workers from a young age.

Later, when he reached the Assembly as an MLA, Rajendran introduced a construction workers' welfare bill. He twice made it to the state Assembly, in 1982 and 1987, both from the Vazhoor constituency.

Between 1982 and 2006, he contested to the Assembly five times. However, unlike in his first two stints, the constituency of Vazhoor, did not side with Rajendran. He lost to Kerala Congress leader K Narayana Kurup in successive polls and to Kurup's son N Jayaraj in 2006.

Setbacks in the polls, however, did not diminish Rajendran's stature in politics, which only grew. Since his elevation to the state secretary of CPI, Rajendran held sway in the Left front.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the state ministers will pay respects to Kanam at the Amrita Hospital in Kochi. Saturday at 8 am, the mortal remains will be airlifted to Thiruvananthapuram. His body will be kept for public homage at his residence at Jagathi and later at the PS Smarakom at Pattom, where the CPI state office functions now.

After 2.30 pm, the body will be taken by road to Kottayam. The funeral will be held at Kanam in Kottayam at 11 am on Sunday, said minister K Rajan.