THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ramesh has come a long way after entering student politics at the age of 14 and then steadily climbing up the ladder without a break till 1997. After adorning various posts in the KSU from the grassroots to the state-level and later as NSUI president,his tryst with electoral politics at the age of 26 in 1982, when he got elected from the Haripad seat. He was handpicked by his mentor, the late, K Karunakaran to be a minister in his Cabinet when he was barely 28.
Ramesh maintained his winning streak in the 1987 Assembly elections and later in the Lok Sabha polls from Kottayam where he recorded three back-to-back victories.
In between, he became the Youth Congress national president and later AICC joint secretary.He was a regular in many Parliamentary Committees and delegations, during his tenure as Lok Sabha MP.
After losing the LS polls in 1997,Ramesh moved to Mavelikkara to taste success again in 1999. He held the posts of AICC secretary and CWC member afterwards,before taking over as KPCC president in 2005, a post which he had held for nine years. He became the Home and Vigilance Minister in the last two and a half years of the erstwhile UDF Government.