One of India's senior communist ideologue 'VS' Achuthanandan turns 95

Veteran CPI-M leader and former Kerala chief minister V S Achuthanandan turned 95 Saturday. Achuthanandan popularly known as 'VS' celebrated the day along with members of his family by cutting a cake at his residence here.

Known as the state's Fidel Castro, Achuthanandan, whose life has been a relentless struggle not only against injustice but also "revisionist" trends in his own movement, is currently the State Administrative Reforms Commission Chairman.

CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury was among the first to wish the nonagenarian leader. A founder leader of CPI(M) in 1964 after splitting from CPI, Achuthanandan went on to become the chief minister of the southern state from 2006 to 2011.

During the subsequent Congress-led UDF rule, he was the opposition leader. Considered a leader of the masses, Velikkakath Sankaran Achuthanandan was born on October 20, 1923, in a working-class family in Punnapra in Alappuzha district.

Compelled to end his education at the primary stage, he was soon attracted to the trade union movement in Alappuzha district.

His life since then has been inseparably linked with the history of the Communist movement in the state, including the Punnapra-Vayalar uprising, nationwide ban on the party following the Calcutta thesis, split between the movement, arrest of CPI(M) leaders during India-China war, emergency period and faction feuds in the party.

Achuthanandan was the main campaigner in the 2016 state assembly polls that saw the CPI(M)-led-LDF coming to power in Kerala with a massive mandate of 91 seats.