THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The year 1957. Kerala was headed towards its first elections. A 34-year-old was the district secretary of the undivided Communist Party in Kollam. Alappuzha district was not even formed. He was in charge of campaigning in the region and the Left won nine out of the 11 seats under his command. The name of the young leader: VS Achuthanandan.
During the 1958 Devikulam bypoll, political Kerala came across a masterstroke by VS who was then the election secretary to Rosamma Punnoose. Her opponent was B K Nair, for whom a slew of senior Congress leaders including Indira Gandhi had flown down and campaigned. The Congress was pretty sure of a comfortable win.
But VS had other plans in mind. M G Ramachandran — the one and only MGR of Indian cinema and Tamil politics — was shooting in Munnar. VS managed to get MGR to campaign for the Left in a constituency which had a substantial number of Tamil voters. Incidentally, that was the only time MGR campaigned in the state. The rest is history. Rosamma won by a margin of over 7,000 votes.
With Kerala set to witness yet another election, the state surely misses its Communist patriarch. Now 97, VS has never missed an election campaign in his seven-decade political career, save for this one. And this time, he is not just staying away from campaigning, but it is also doubtful whether he would even cast his vote a first in his life.
VS was once termed Kerala’s own Fidel Castro by CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury. With VS staying away from campaigning, that political Kerala misses its star campaigner is very evident. The biggest crowd-puller for the Left in recent times has remained inactive because of his advanced age.
“The absence of VS from campaigning has definitely created a political vacuum of sorts this assembly election. His absence will be grossly felt. For many years, I have wished only two people on their birthdays — VS and K R Gowri Amma,” Congress veteran A K Antony told TNIE. He also expressed his desire to visit the veteran Communist.
VS last addressed a major campaign rally in October 2019, albeit only for a few minutes. The rally was held for CPM’s Vattiyoorkavu candidate V K Prasanth at Kuravankonam. Even at 96, he proved to be the biggest crowd-puller in the state’s electoral history. In a three-and-a-half minute speech, VS managed to touch upon almost all topics that had then hogged state politics.
A former chief minister himself, VS served as the chairman of the Administrative Reforms Commission for five years, stepping down this January. Curtains have almost come down for his more than seven-decade-long political career. With campaigning now reaching a crescendo, Kerala sorely misses the sharp salvos that VS used to fire at all electoral opponents of the Left front.
Frenzied masses hung on to each word, savouring with relish his accurate barbs and striking analogies that rung true with the common man. The stage now seems starkly empty with hardly anyone in the state’s political spectrum able to match VS’ quick repartees and his colloquial way with words that never failed to win the hearts of his adoring audience.
Country’s oldest living Communist
A founder-leader of the CPM, V S Achuthanandan is the oldest living Communist in India. He was among the 32 leaders who walked out of the historical CPI national council meet in 1964 to form the CPM. VS, who began his political career as a trade unionist, has been in the forefront of land struggles and was also part of the iconic Punnapra-Vayalar struggle.