Birthdays are meant to be celebrated, especially so if you are the patriarch for not just your family, but an entire movement and a large number of doting followers. Not for Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan for whom Tuesday, his 92{+n}{+d}birthday, was not much different from most other days.
Mr. Achuthanandan, who maintains a rigorous discipline in his lifestyle, was up early on Tuesday as well, read the newspapers, went for his morning walk and yoga and his sun gazing routine in the morning and was ready for the day by the time a few leaders of the CPI(M) dropped in to greet him. The only unusual element of the day was the presence of a battery of mediapersons at his home and a feast. Only former Minister M. Vijayakumar, Thiruvananthapuram Mayor nominee of the CPI(M) C. Jayan Babu and Aisha Baker, another candidate in the fray in the local government elections in the city, dropped in to greet him.
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By evening, Mr. Achuthanandan was ready to begin his campaign push for the CPI(M) and the LDF with two meetings in the city at Kumarapuram and Maruthankuzhy.
He will be on a punishing campaign tour beginning Thursday and would address election rallies in Kollam, Alappuzha, Idukki, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Alappuzha, Kannur, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Kottayam, and Pathanamthitta over the coming 10 days. He would be back in the capital only on November 1, on the eve of the first round of polling.