THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:‘A gentleman politician to the core.’ This sums up veteran Congress leader Thennala Balakrishna Pillai, 95, who died on Friday. He never ran after positions even when they were legitimately his. Neither did he grumble when he was treated unceremoniously by party colleagues.
The Congress-led UDF won a record 100 seats under Thennala’s stewardship in the 2001 assembly elections, a first for the front. However, he was soon asked to relinquish the KPCC president’s post to make way for K Muraleedharan as part of a deal struck between the two warring factions within the state Congress-led by stalwarts K Karunakaran and A K Antony. Thennala obliged without any fuss. The front has never won 100 seats in the assembly after that.
This saint-like renunciation was not a quality Thennala developed deliberately, it was inherent in him, feel leaders close to him. Assertion was not his style. He was always courteous, but firm. As a leader, he handled the toughest among challenges not with an iron hand, but with calm resolve. Because of this characteristic, he could not climb up the ladder in the party, though he was as tall a leader as Karunakaran, in terms of experience and seniority.
Thennala was born to a revered Nair family at Sooranad in Kollam. “At the time, the aristocracy he had was an additional quality for any Congress leader from southern Kerala to grow up in the party. He could easily have been a top leader, leaving several others behind. But he chose not to. That might be called a quality or an inherent character,” a veteran Congress leader told TNIE.
He was a staunch supporter of Indira Gandhi and Karunakaran. Thennala lived a simple life and was very careful to avoid getting mired in any controversy. This was said to be one reason he lost the cabinet berth between the cup and the lip. In 1986, Thennala was chosen to become a minister in the Karunakaran ministry. However, at the last minute, he was dropped and Ramesh Chennithala was chosen.