Idukki: Senior CPI leader and Peerumade MLA Vazhoor Soman passed away in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday. He was 72. He died of a heart attack.

He collapsed while coming out after attending a revenue assembly meeting at the Institute of Land and Disaster Management (ILDM), PTP Nagar in Thiruvananthapuram. He was immediately rushed to Sree Ramakrishna Mission Hospital, Sasthamangalam, but could not be saved. 

The mortal remains will be taken to M N Smarakam and will be kept for the public to pay homage from 7 pm to 8.30 pm. The body will then be taken to Peerumade. His last rites will be performed at his residence in Peerumade on Friday. 

He won the Peerumade constituency in the 2021 elections, defeating Congress candidate Syriac Thomas by a margin of 1,835 votes.

Soman has been active in public life since 1974, working extensively for the plantation workers in Idukki. He's the incumbent AITUC state vice-president and the general secretary of the Peerumade Plantation Workers' Union, which is considered the largest plantation workers' organisation in Asia. Previously, he served as the chairman of the standing committee of the Idukki district panchayat.

Soman, a native of Vazhoor in Kottayam district, made Peerumade his political base quite accidentally. As a student, he once travelled to his mother's ancestral home in Peerumade to spend the vacation. Subsequently decided to make it his base.

He then joined AISF and began his public life. Later, he focused his activities among plantation workers. He learned Tamil to communicate with them and wielded considerable influence in the community. The CPI sent him to the erstwhile Soviet Union to complete his education.

Though his name had come up multiple times during discussions for candidacy in the Peerumade constituency, he stepped aside in favour of ES Biji Mol. He served as the chairman of the Warehousing Corporation during the first Pinarayi Vijayan government. 

His children, Shobith and Saubith, are advocates.