VS Achuthanandan was a popular chief minister, a timeless communist leader, and a fighter to the last. His achievements stem from the troubled times of Kerala’s first agrarian movement in the 1940s. He became a member of the communist party when he was just 17 years old. He was to go on a rollercoaster ride of a career.

Achuthanandan had invited the wrath of his own party for his stands that deviated from the official party line. That explained his electoral defeat in the CPM stronghold of Mararikulam when the party was voted to power. He overcame the objections within the party to become the chief minister. His later career was shaped by the deep factionalism within the party that directly targeted him.

Achuthanandan was elected the party's state secretary for three terms. He joined hands with EMS Namboodiripad to oust MV Raghavan from the party and consolidate his position. Eyeing the post of chief minister, Achuthanandan convinced the party to dismiss the government one year short of its term. The party-led front, however, lost the election in 1991.

Late that year, Achuthanandan set his eyes on one more term as the party secretary. However, he lost to EK Nayanar by four votes. The defeat ruffled Achuthanandan to the core and set in motion a process that created deep fissures in the party organisation.

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Achuthanandan was brutal in his manoeuvres against the official party faction in the 1995 state conference in Kollam. A year later, he lost the assembly election in Mararikulam. The defeat in a party borough was received with shock across Kerala. The CPM-led Left Democratic Front came to power even as a probable chief minister, Achuthanandan, was left to lick his wounds. Nayanar was chosen as the chief minister.

Achuthanandan was ready to strike back at the CPM state conference in Palakkad in 1998. His secret weapon was Pinarayi Vijayan, the minister of electricity and cooperation in the Nayanar ministry. With ample support from Achuthanandan, Pinarayi was elected as the party’s state secretary. The veteran was soon to discover that he had grossly miscalculated. Pinarayi was inducted into the party's central committee and politburo, and he soon consolidated the party in Kerala around him.

The party was vertically divided between the supporters of Achuthanandan and Pinarayi. The Kannur strongman went all out against Achuthanandan, disowning him as a nobody outside the party's framework.

Achuthanandan upped the ante by lashing out at the state leadership at the state conference in Malappuram in 2004. He was suspended from the politburo on May 26, 2007. Though he was inducted back into the top body later, he was kept away from the politburo in 2009. Though the party leadership was against fielding Achuthanandan in the 2006 election, a wave of people’s protests across Kerala tilted the balance in favour of the veteran.

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Achuthanandan’s popularity rested on his activism during his tenure as the leader of the opposition between 2001 and 2006. He was elected from Malampuzha and went on to become the chief minister. The rift in the party widened but Achuthanandan consolidated his position as a people’s chief minister. The party could not deny him the chance to contest the assembly elections of 2011 and 2016. Nobody could replace him in Malampuzha.

Achuthanandan rubbed the party the wrong way on multiple occasions. He put the party on the dock in the murder of dissident TP Chandrasekharan. He backed disgraced police officer TP Senkumar and visited Berlin Kunjananthan Nair, who was expelled for his anti-party comments, and even pointed a finger at then MLA PK Sasi, who faced allegations of sexual misconduct. Achuthanandan always did what he thought was right. Such outspoken comments made him the darling of the masses, though. As chief minister, Achuthanandan drew strength from the support of the civil society to demolish the illegally built structures in the ecologically fragile  Munnar. The demolition drive invited the wrath of the party and LDF constituents, but Achuthanandan could not care less.

The interventions against unauthorised construction in Munnar and Idamalayar could be considered a forewarning to Kerala, which was to suffer two successive floods in 2018 and 2019. He never looked for allies to drive an agenda he thought was right. He refused to budge before the might of the party and the opposition from colleagues.

With Achuthanandan’s demise, the CPM lost its last surviving founder member. Kerala has lost a true communist who stood by his ideals even at the cost of being sidelined within the party.

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