Congress leader Satheesan Pacheni passes away

Satheesan Pacheni
Satheesan Pacheni. File photo: Manorama

Kannur: Congress leader Satheesan Pacheni passed away on Thursday. He was 54.

He was admitted to a private hospital here on October 19 after suffering brain haemorrhage.

Pacheni was born in a Communist family in the Communist village of Taliparamba. However, he nurtured his politics on the right flank.

He was the grandson of Pacheni Uruvaden who led many farmers’ agitations and underwent imprisonment several times, including in the Mavicheri case for the Communist Party.

Manicheri Satheesan aka Satheesan Pacheni was born as the eldest son of a farmer and diehard Communist worker, the late Palakkeel Damodaran and Manicheri Narayani on January 5, 1968.

After completing primary education at Pacheni Government LP School, he completed his school education at Iringal UP School and Pariyaram Government High School. He secured a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the Kannur Government Polytechnic. Later, he passed pre-degree from Kannur SN College and secured a degree in Political Science from the Payyannur College.

As a school student, Pacheni was attracted to Congress after reading the speech of A K Antony in the AIIC Meeting in Guwahati in 1977-78 against the misuse of the Emergency in the newspapers. His respect for the value-based politics put forward by Antony prompted him to join the KSU during his schooling days.

Satheesan Pacheni
Satheesan Pacheni. File photo: Manorama

While studying in Pariyaram school, he became the president of the KSU unit formed for the first time at the school. Later, he became KSU unit president at the Kannur Polytechnic College. From KSU taluk secretary, Kannur district vice-president, state committee member, and state general secretary, Pacheni became the state president of the student body in 1999. He was the lone leader from Kannur to become the state president of KSU.

When the young scion of the Communist family became a KSU worker, he was ousted from the family at the age of 16.  His name was struck off from the ration card as well. But Pacheni did not retract from his decision, even though he knew he would not have a roof over his head and the money to pursue his studies.

When he stepped down from his responsibilities in the KSU, he was directly elevated to the Congress organizational committee as the KPCC Secretary without his working in the Youth Congress. He continued to hold the key party position for 11 consecutive years from 2001. He held the post of Kannur DCC president from December 2016 to 2021. It was then that he took the initiative and oversaw the timely construction of the Kannur DCC office ‘Congress Bhavan’, which reflected his leadership qualities. It was among the largest Congress offices in the country, and, more importantly, built in a CPM stronghold district.

With his demise, Congress lost a powerful leader who always stood for value-based politics. Though he didn’t get many opportunities to represent the parliament, he raised no complaints while playing a strong and active role in the party. Pacheni became a known political figure after he undertook several foot marches in Kannur district and outside it as part of party activities and to highlight many social issues. He was popular among the party's lower cadres, as he always spoke for them, no matter whether he was holding a key position or not.

Satheeshan Pacheni entered the election fray by contesting against the big names in the CPM fort. He stood against CPM stalwart V S Achudanandan in Malampuzha (2001, 2006) twice and against M V Govindan in Talimparambu (1996) while contesting the Kerala assembly elections. His candidatureship against Govindan, the current CPM state secretary, garnered much attention. Govindan had taught Pacheni while the latter was studying at Iringal school and the ‘Guru-Disciple’ contest was keenly followed all across the state. Though Pacheri put up a strong fight in all these places, he couldn’t cross the finishing line as the winner. He fought the last two assembly elections from Kannur constituency, but victory eluded him there too.

Pacheni is survived by his wife K V Reena, an employee with the Talimparambu Urban Co-operative Bank, and children, Jawahar and Saniya.

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