Veteran Communist Party of India (CPI) leader and former Minister E. Chandrasekharan Nair, 89, died here on Wednesday afternoon.
The end came around 12.20 p.m. at the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology (SCTIMST) where he was admitted early this week following a chest congestion.
Mr. Nair, who had a six-decade active innings as MLA and Minister, held the key portfolio of Food and Civil Supplies successfully three times in 1980-81, 1987-91 and 1996-2001. In the final stint as Minister, he had also held the portfolios of Tourism and Law. As a soft-spoken and mild-mannered leader, he had won the hearts of his party cadres and the poor.
Elected 6 times
He was elected to the Assembly in 1957, 1967, 1977, 1980, 1987, and 1996. Since then, he had abstained from active politics. A voracious reader, Mr. Nair had written books such as Kerala Vikasana Mathrukayum Prathisandiyum Parihara Margangalum , Hindu Matham Hinduthwam , Chithariya Ormakal, and Marakatha Ormakal . The book on Hinduism won him the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award.
He is survived by wife Manorama Nair, daughter Gita and son Jayachandran.
The body, kept at the SCTIMST mortuary, would be taken to the M.N. Smarakam at 9.30 a.m. on Friday for the people to pay respects and from there to his residence at Pandit Colony, Kowdiar at 12 noon. The cremation is at Santhikavadam at 3 p.m.
