Idukki: In the skilled hands of Babu Parthan, a headload worker from Bison Valley, a lifelike statue of Oommen Chandy has come to life.

A member of CITU, Babu’s only inspiration to create the statue was his deep respect for Oommen Chandy as a compassionate leader. The seven-foot-tall sculpture, built on a steel frame and crafted using around 20 kg of marble powder and concrete, took over two years to complete. The project cost approximately ₹2.5 lakh, with a few Congress supporters also contributing financially.

Despite having no formal training in sculpting, Babu is no stranger to this art. Earlier, he spent three years crafting a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, which now stands in the yard of Bison Valley High School, where he and his children studied. He later created a statue of Lord Parashurama, which was installed at Bison Valley SN Central School.

Babu now dreams of sculpting a statue of Dr A P J Abdul Kalam and plans to install it in Adimaly town.

Babu and his wife Sathi work as daily wage labourers. Their two children, Akshara and Akshay, have completed BSc courses in Dialysis Technology and are employed in private hospitals. The couple's third child, Anaswara, is pursuing a BSc Nursing degree in Bengaluru, while their youngest son, Jagan, is a Plus Two student at Bison Valley Government Higher Secondary School.