KOTTAYAM:One of the comments when Kanam Rajendran, 65, was elected the secretary of the Communist Party of India, was that ‘while the CPM picked up a smiling secretary, CPI got a glum-faced head.
While the 22nd party state conference assigned him with the new responsibility of heading the party in the state, it seems to be a ‘delayed justice’ for a man, who had become a member of nine-member state secretariat of the party at the age of 25, and that too in the glorious era of the CPI in the early 1970s.
He was one of the main contenders during the proceedings to replace the position following the demise of the then party state secretary C K Chandrappan in 2012. Though, he had the support of a majority of party state council members, the Central leadership proposed Pannian Raveendran to the post. With Rajendran at the helm of the party, CPI has once again got a ‘high spirited’ party man like Veliyam Bhargawan and C K Chandrappan, who bristle with anger, whenever the party comes under attack.
Rajendran, a known disciple of the late C K Chandrappan, has come to party through, student and youth-wing organisations of the party. Rajendran, who played a pivotal role in building-up the youth wing organisation AIYF had become its state secretary in 1970. He was also its national vice-president, while Chandrappan and the present CPI secretary S Sudhakar Reddy, were heading AIYF at the national level. Later, Rajendran, took to trade union activities and worked with leaders including P Balachandra Menon, K A Rajan, P Bhaskaran and Kalla Krishnan. He was elected the state secretary of the Kerala State Trade Union council at the age of 20 in 1970 and later became the general secretary of AITUC. He had become party state secretariat member, while N E Balram was elected the party state secretary and worked along with famous communists M N Govindan Nair, C Achutha Menon and T V Thomas then.
He also made significant intervention in organising the labourers in the unorganised and new age working sectors. He was twice elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1982 and 1987 from the erstwhile Vazhoor constituency.
It is significant that Kerala Construction Workers Welfare Act came into being as a follow-up step of a private member’s Bill presented by Rajendran during his debut as an MLA. He headed the state government’s Assurance committee during 1984-87.
Rajendran was elected CPI national executive member in the previous Patna party congress. He is also a member of AITUC national secretariat and AITUC state president. Rajendran was born to P V Parameswaran Nair and Chellamma, of Kochukalapurayidom House in Kanam, near Kottayam, on November 10, 1950. Vanaja Rajendran is his wife, and Sandip and Smitha are children.