T’PURAM/KOZHIKODE: Former minister and senior Congress leader P Sankaran passed away in Kozhikode around 11pm on Tuesday after a prolonged illness. He was 72. He represented Koyilandy constituency in the assembly and became a minister of health and tourism in the A K Antony government in 2001-2004. A staunch loyalist of former Congress leader K Karunakaran, Sankaran was a key functionary of Democratic Indira Congress (K) floated by the former. He left Congress in 2005 to contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2006 as a DIC(K) candidate. But he returned to Congress a year later.
Basically from Perambra, Sankaran was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kozhikode in 1998. He had served as the KPCC general secretary and DCC president, among other posts, in Congress. Sankaran began his political life through KSU and became the vice-chairman of Calicut University in early 1970s. He was jailed in 1977 for protesting against the arrest of Indira Gandhi. Sankaran is survived by wife Prof Sudha and three children.