Thiruvananthapuram: The last breath of V.S. Achuthanandan has marked not just the departure of a towering leader, but the conclusion of a defiant era in Kerala’s political evolution a period defined by peasant uprisings, labour agitations, and the moral voice of Marxist ideology. The 101-year-old stalwart of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who served as Kerala's Chief Minister and a symbol of incorruptible politics, breathed his last at the SUT Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, where he was on ventilator support following a cardiac arrest.
Born in 1923 in the modest village of Punnapra in Alappuzha, Velikkakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan affectionately known as VS rose from the ranks of orphaned poverty to become a legend of resistance. Losing both his parents to smallpox at the age of eleven, VS was raised by his siblings and relatives, navigating a life of hardships and labor. He ended formal schooling in Class VII and worked at his brother's jute shop before becoming a worker at the Aspinwall Coir Factory, where he encountered the Communist movement that would shape the rest of his life.
It was at the age of 17 that VS joined the then-underground Communist Party, inspired by the ideological teachings of P. Krishna Pillai, R. Sugathan, and C. Unniraja. A self-taught man of steel nerves and Spartan discipline, VS was among those who laid the cornerstone of Kerala’s trade union and agrarian movements. He played a pivotal role in the peasant agitations of Kuttanad and the fiery workers’ revolts of Punnapra and Vayalar, where he was arrested and brutally assaulted by police.
In 1952, he was appointed Alappuzha Divisional Secretary of the Undivided Communist Party and later became its District Secretary in 1956. With the ideological rift in the Communist Party of India in 1964, VS was one among the 32 who broke away to form the CPI(M), positioning himself among its founding vanguard. He was elected to the CPI(M) Politburo in 1985, after serving over a decade as its State Secretary.
VS's electoral journey reflected the political mood of Kerala across decades. Though he lost his first assembly contest in 1965, he won back-to-back from Ambalappuzha in 1967 and 1970. In 1991, he returned to the electoral fray as the Chief Ministerial face of the Left but could not form the government due to the Congress-led surge post Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. VS won from Mararikulam, however, and served as the Leader of the Opposition. He would go on to become a revered opposition voice and finally, the Chief Minister of Kerala in 2006.
His tenure as Chief Minister is remembered for bold anti-corruption crusades and people-centric governance. VS was instrumental in the Munnar eviction drive that reclaimed encroached government lands and took a hard stance against real estate mafias and corporate exploitation. Even after leaving active politics, he remained a moral compass for Kerala’s Left movement.
Yet, VS was not just a symbol of struggle against external enemies. He was a relentless internal critic of his own party. His resistance against sectarianism and cronyism within the CPI(M) caused prolonged periods of internal strife, including his own removal from the Politburo. His ideological duels with Pinarayi Vijayan, now Kerala’s Chief Minister, remain one of the most documented political rivalries in the party’s history. Despite multiple warnings and sidelining by the party’s top leadership, VS never chose to abandon it a testament to his discipline and loyalty to ideology over ego.
As much as he was an administrator, VS was also a foot soldier never seeking luxuries, he continued to live a simple life even when in office. He was respected even by his political rivals for his clean image, deep-rooted convictions, and commitment to the poor.
His passing comes at a time when the working-class ethos that defined Kerala’s political identity is itself under threat from corporatized politics and rising communal narratives. VS's death is not merely personal bereavement for the CPI(M); it is a loss for an entire ideological tradition that drew strength from discipline, sacrifice, and mass mobilization.
In many ways, VS Achuthanandan was the last thread connecting the early revolutionary fervor of undivided Travancore to the modern-day Left democratic movement in united Kerala. His legacy will be remembered not in statues or symbols, but in the memories of those who fought alongside him and in the consciousness of a state that learned to resist through his life.
Kerala has lost a statesman who never bowed to power, money, or compromise. And in his silence, an age of upright struggle is laid to rest.