BJP councillor & CPM's tormentor in TVM corporation council Anilkumar found hanging in his office

BJP councillor and party's Thiruvananthapuram unit Secretary, K Anilkumar, 58, was found dead in his ward office at Thirumala on Saturday. He was found hanging from the ceiling fan at 9.45 am, Poojapura police said. The inquest procedure is underway. He reportedly committed suicide due to financial stress, his colleagues in the council said. 

Anilkumar ran a co-operative society at Valiyasala. The non-performing assets had piled up. He was dealing with a growing demand to release the maturity amount of fixed deposits in the society. As the debts piled up, Anilkumar was depressed for a while, BJP councillors said. While it is reported that police recovered a suicide note from his office, Poojapura police did not verify the report. The body will be shifted to Thiruvananthapuram Medical College for autopsy after the inquest. 

In the Thiruvananthapuram corporation council, which has long been dominated by the CPM, Anilkumar was first elected from Thrikkanapuram in 2015. He was among the 35 BJP councillors elected to the council; a historic feat for the BJP which had been represented by just six councillors in the previous council. In 2020, he was elected from Thirumala.

 A former Hindu Aikyavedi leader in the district, Anilkumar was pungent in his speech during council meetings, hurling provocative remarks at the ruling LDF front. He had had run-ins with the senior LDF councillors, former Mayor V K Prasanth and present Mayor Arya Rajendran. He often came to the council armed with a sheaf of papers and a notepad that ran into pages of jottings.

As he spoke, he would hold up the papers in one arm and notepad in another, and flipped through pages to reel off findings from the audit reports and figures from the corporation's annual financial statements to corner the ruling front.

Anilkumar was at his aggressive best during the post-budget discussions. He tore into the budget proposals and flagged glaring mismatches in figures. His oratorial prowess was counteracted by the CPM in multiple ways. Designated leaders from the ruling front would often rise as Anilkumar spoke, raising questions and this would disrupt the flow.

"I know what you are doing, you are disrupting my rhythm, but you can't run away from the issue," an evidently animated Anilkumar once fumed at Arya Rajendran. LDF parliamentary party meetings ahead of the council would pick a veteran to deal specifically with Anilkumar. 

When the Manipur issue was raging, Deputy Mayor P K Raju presented a strange proposal. He suggested sending cops from the AR camp in Thiruvananthapuram to curb violence in Manipur since the BJP-led government had failed to do so. Anilkumar, who , had till then sat quietly during the special council, stood up and screamed.

"There is a limit to such buffoonery. Somebody please stop this". The LDF seized on the remark and alleged that Anilkumar had called the Deputy Mayor a buffoon and he should apologise for it. Anilkumar nodded with a smirk and stared at the ceiling of the council hall, he could not have cared less.

Former officials of the city corporation said that Anilkumar was one of the councillors who came, prepared, for the council meetings. He would start slowly, pick up pace, shift his tone as he closed in on his target, an official said. The demise of Anilkumar is a major blow to the BJP, which has started groundwork for the upcoming local body elections. He is survived by his wife and two daughters. He resided at Annoor, Thirumala.