Veteran Congress leader Thennala Balakrishna Pillai passes away at 95
He was elected twice to the Kerala Legislative Assembly from the Adoor constituency, serving from 1977 to 1980 and again from 1982 to 1987.
He was elected twice to the Kerala Legislative Assembly from the Adoor constituency, serving from 1977 to 1980 and again from 1982 to 1987.
He was elected twice to the Kerala Legislative Assembly from the Adoor constituency, serving from 1977 to 1980 and again from 1982 to 1987.
Thiruvananthapuram: Veteran Congress leader and former Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Thennala Balakrishna Pillai, who had long been the party's self-effacing crisis manager, passed away at a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. He was 95. His mortal remains will be taken to his residence at Mukkola in Nettayam, Thiruvananthapuram. He was undergoing treatment for age-related ailments.
A true-blue Congress man, Thennala was the party's panacea for internal strife. He never let himself be swayed by group affiliations. It was this reputation that evoked trust in party workers. They took him at his word when he devised poll strategies and asked them to execute it. Thennala exhibited a rare calm, even when the party inflicted gross insults, like in 2001 when he was asked to step down as KPCC president to make way for K Muraleedharan as per an earlier agreement. He didn't utter even a murmur of dissent. He reached Indira Bhavan, handed out his resignation letter and returned home quietly. A seasoned parliamentarian and prominent figure in Kerala's political landscape, Pillai had dedicated over six decades of his life to public service.
Born on March 11, 1930, in Sooranad, Kollam, Pillai began his political journey at the grassroots level. A graduate of Mahatma Gandhi College, Thiruvananthapuram, he entered politics through the Congress party's local units and steadily rose through the ranks.
He was elected twice to the Kerala Legislative Assembly from the Adoor constituency, serving from 1977 to 1980 and again from 1982 to 1987. Pillai was later nominated to the Rajya Sabha three times, representing Kerala in the Upper House of Parliament from 1991 to 1998 and again from 2003 to 2009.
His organisational skills were widely recognised within the party. Pillai served two terms as KPCC president, first from 1998 to 2001 and again from 2004 to 2005. Pillai also held leadership positions in the cooperative sector, including as president of the Kollam District Congress Committee and the District Cooperative Bank (Pathanamthitta). He also served on the Rubber Board, the National Shipping Board, and was a member of the National River Conservation Authority, among other national-level bodies.