VS Achuthanandan

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Briefly

BS Anilkumar, July 22, 2025: The Times of India

Former CM Velikkakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan — was a firebrand Marxist, CPM’s founding member, and Kerala’s consciencekeeper. 
He was known as VS across political aisles.

Born on Oct 20, 1923, in Alappuzha to Velikkakathu Sankaran and Akkamma, he lost his mother at four and father at 11. Hunger cut short school at Class 7. The “chovan” (Ezhava) boy faced casteist jeers, but his resolve only hardened. At 21, he was organising Kuttanad farm workers. By 1940, he joined Communist Party. Jail, underground life, resistance — his early life reads like Kerala’s own left-wing chronicle. 


Achuthanandan became CPM state secretary (1980–92), was elected to the assembly four times, and led the state as CM from 2006 to 2011 — the first working-class communist in India to do so. He twice served as opposition leader, and his loss at Mararikulam in 1996 polls shocked even his critics.


His brand of politics was not of quiet obedience. He challenged CPM brass, openly taking on party honchos he dubbed “crafty revisionists”. His feud with Pinarayi cost him a politburo seat. Yet he never broke from the party.


He led anti-corruption crusades, exposed sex scandals involving ministers and film stars, and sent former minister R Balakrishna Pillai to jail. A green activist before the phrase existed, he battled land grab and paddy reclamation. Even in his 90s, he hired a tutor to learn Hindi after being named administrative reforms panel chief. Supporters called him the soul of CPM. With his passing, the last of the founding reds was gone.