The elevation of E. Chandrasekharan, senior leader of the Communist Party of India from Kasaragod, to the State Cabinet, will augur well for the developmental aspirations of the backward district. IUML leader Cherkalam Abdullah, who was Minister for Local Self-government in the A.K. Antony Ministry from May 2001 to August 2004, was the last leader from the district to become a Minister.
Mr. Chandrasekharan, the two-time MLA from Kanhangad, is known for simplicity, joviality, and political astuteness.
Highest margin
This time, he won with the district’s highest victory margin of 26,011.
Born to P. Kunhiraman Nair and Edayilliam Parvathi Amma of Perumbala, near here, he took to communism from his youth, following the footsteps of his uncle E. Krishnan Nair, a die-hard Communist leader from the district.
Political career
He became part of party’s organisational set-up through the All India Youth Federation (AIYF) in 1969 and went on to become its State Joint Secretary.
His political graph rose steadily and he emerged as the party’s State Executive Committee member and its State treasurer.
Mr. Chandrasekharan stayed true to the grassroots initially, serving as a Chemmanad grama panchayat member from 1975 to 1985. He took part in various agitations spearheaded by the Left, including those that culminated in the formation of the district in 1984.
Mr. Chandrasekharan was the CPI district secretary from 1987.
He relinquished the post in 1998 after he became the party’s State council member.
He was the CPI State Secretariat member from 2005 and was the party’s deputy leader in the 13th State Assembly.
Mr. Chandrasekharan and Savithri’s only daughter Neeli Chandran is a research student at the Karyavattom campus of the University of Kerala .
E. Chandrasekharan of the CPI has worked his way up from the grassroots
