E-Paper
K Karunakaran
At the age of 83, no other politician is as energetic as the veteran Congress leader, Karunakaran.
'Leader' as he is popularly acclaimed, Karunakaran is quite at ease with the masses and is of the firm resolve to serve the Keralites who elevated him to the heights of national eminence over the years.
Born as the third son of Thekkedathu Ravunni Marar and Kannoth Kalyani Amma on July 5, 1918, Karunakaran had a deep interest in painting and was admitted to Maharaja’s Technological Institute of Painting where he passed out with a gold medal. Later at the age of 35, he married Kalyani Kutty Amma and has a son Muraleedharan and a daughter Padmaja.
Karunakaran life is an open book which narrates the history of Indian National Congress and Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) in Kerala. He joined the Indian National Congress in 1936 at the age of 19 and was elected from the Mala assembly constituency in 1965, 1967, 1970, 1977, 1982, 1987 and 1991. In 1971, Karunakaran was sworn in as the Home Minister of Kerala. He has been the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party in Kerala since 1967. Karunakaran was elected to the Lok Sabha from Mukundapuram Parliament Constituency in 1999 after defeating his nearest rival by a margin of 52 463 votes.
At the age of 83, no other politician is as energetic as this veteran Congress leader. Lately, Karunakaran has been caught in a row with the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and his bete noire in the state, AK Antony, when his daughter Padmaja was denied a nomination to contest the forthcoming assembly elections in Kerala. With the Congress high command refusing to heed to Karunakaran's demands, the factional feud in the party is taking disastrous turns, which many fear could lead to the UDF's debacle at the hustings.
