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Former Kerala chief minister and veteran Congress leader Oommen Chandy died in a hospital in Bengaluru on Tuesday morning after a long battle with cancer. He was 79.
His death was announced by his son, Congress leader Chandy Oommen, in a Facebook post at 4.30 am.
Chandy was born on October 21, 1943, in Puthuppally in Kottayam district, from where he would go on to make his name as one of the most popular political leaders in Kerala. He got his initial break in politics through the Kerala Students’ Union, the students’ wing of Congress in the state. He graduated in law, and became a prominent leader of the Youth Congress, emerging as its state president in 1969.
The next year, he was elected from the Puthuppally Assembly seat for the first time, aged 27. He would go on to become the longest-serving legislator from Kerala, representing the constituency from 1970 until his death, a rare feat in state politics. In the last Kerala Assembly elections held in 2021, Chandy had won from Puthuppally for the 12th consecutive time.
A massive crowd-puller, Chandy served as the Kerala CM from 2011 to 2016, and from 2004 to 2006. From 2006 to 2011, he had also served as the Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly.
During his second stint as CM, Chandy had launched a mass contact programme to meet people and hear their grievances and ensure relief to them. His programme was widely lauded as a unique democratic experiment in which the chief minister of a state met thousands of people directly without any intermediaries. The programme received the United Nations Global Award for Public Service in 2013.
Oommen Chandy is survived by his wife Mariamma and children Maria Oommen, Chandy Oommen, and Achu Oommen.
