For him age is but a number. He is 92-plus, but he is up early every morning and is ready for the day after yoga, a brisk walk and a few minutes’ hard gaze at the sun. Velikkakath Sankaran Achuthananandan is agile physically given his age and more alert mentally than many much younger to him. And, not surprisingly, he is the once again the man to watch, as Kerala gets ready for the May 16 Assembly elections.
The CPI(M) is clearly looking up to him to give the firepower that would help the party and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) wrest power from the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). The party has made its intentions clear by deciding to field him along with party Polit Bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan, who is the leading claimant for the top job in the event of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) winning the mandate. The CPI(M) leadership’s decision is a sign of the predicament that the party faces in Kerala today. It cannot hope to sway the masses in its favour without his presence. His strength lies in his ability to touch the political nerve of the very ordinary people, both young and old. There are many who doubt whether the man would be able carry the campaign on his shoulders in the sweltering Kerala summer, but he has done that time and again.
The only survivor from the 32-member group that walked out of the Communist Party of India (CPI) to form the CPI(M) in 1964, Mr. Achuthanandan transformed from a party hardliner to a leader with a mass appeal. Hailed as one of the heroes of the Punnapra-Vayalar uprising of 1946 in Travancore, Mr. Achuthanandan was elected to the Kerala Assembly in 1967, 1970, 1991, 2001, 2006 and 2011. He headed the LDF government from 2006 to 2011. He was done in by his own party men at Mararikkulam in Alappuzha district in 1996. Mr. Achuthanandan’s is a kind of interventionist politics and he has proved a canny knack to get into the thick of things, often taking unconventional positions, sometimes embarrassing his own party. But the people love him, as evidenced by the intense display of affection and warmth wherever he goes. His oppositional politics has seen him take on, and pursue, the corrupt relentlessly.
ADVERTISEMENT
In 2006, the State party leadership initially denied him ticket citing his advanced age. However, it had to relent and not just give him ticket but also make him Chief Minister.