V.S. Achuthanandan, former Kerala CM and Communist veteran, suffers heart attack
V.S. Achuthanandan, former Kerala Chief Minister and veteran leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], was hospitalised around 10 a.m. on Monday (June 23, 2025) at SUT Hospital at Pattom in Thiruvananthapuram following a heart attack. He is 101 years old.
Hospital sources said Mr. Achuthanandan has been admitted to the ICU and that his current condition was stable.
Popularly known as 'VS', Mr. Achuthanandan turned 101 on October 20, 2024.
Mr. Achuthanandan had been a towering and fiery presence in Kerala politics for decades.
Mr. Achuthanandan was born into a family of agricultural workers at Punappara in Alappuzha in 1923.
In 1964, Mr. Achuthanandan left the Communist Party of India's (CPI) national council to become one of the founding members of the breakaway CPI(M).
The Punnapra-Vayalar uprising, often called Kerala's October Revolution, against the Travancore Diwan's bid to self-rule and to follow the American model of governance led to a mass uprising in which he was tasked with working underground to organise people. But he was arrested in Poonjar and subjected to the worst custodial torture at the Pala police station.
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