V. S. Achuthanandan

Achuthanandan has served many positions in his long political career. He was the Kerala State Secretary of the CPI(M) between 1980 and 1992 and he became a member of the Politburo in 1985. He has also been active in parliamentary politics; he was elected as a member of Kerala Legislative Assembly in 1967, 1970, 1991, 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016. He was the Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Legislative Assembly from 1992 to 1996, from 2001 to 2006 and from 2011 to 2016. He was the editor of CPI(M) mouth piece in Malayalam, Deshabhimani daily. He was the Chief Ministerial candidate for 1996 State elections. In those elections, LDF gained 80 out of 140 seats, but Achuthanandan, who contested from Mararikulam in Alappuzha district, lost by a margin of 1965 votes. Thus, E.K. Nayanar, who held the position twice earlier, became Chief Minister again.

During the assembly elections held in Kerala in April–May 2006, VS Achuthanandan defeated Satheesan Pacheeni of the United Democratic Front by a margin of 20,017 votes in Malampuzha constituency in Palakkad district. He was sworn in as Chief Minister of Kerala on 18 May 2006, with his 21-member cabinet. Aged 82 years and 7 months at time, he was the oldest Chief Minister of Kerala, and one of the oldest in the whole India. It is noticeable that he had been denied a party ticket to contest elections just two months before he sworn in. He became the 11th Chief Minister of Kerala. On 12 July 2009, the CPI(M) Polit bureau and Central Committee removed him from the PB for his stands taken in relation to the accusation and legal procedures against Pinarayi Vijayan in his reported involvement in the Lavlin bribery.[14]

The CPI(M) denied a seat to Achuthanandan for the 2011 assembly election. Protests took place across the state and even on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and via SMS.[15]

In what can be considered as a near repeat of the 2006 pre-election build-up, the Politbureau of CPI-M impressed upon the state leadership to permit VS Achuthanandan to contest elections for the April 2011 Assembly election in Kerala.[16] VS Achuthanandan contested from the Malampuzha Constituency and won with a margin of around 25,000 votes. It was the VS factor that had created history in the 2011 elections with the Opposition front UDF winning the elections on the margin of 72-68 assembly seats. This is considered as loss for UDF as they were ahead in 100 constituencies during the 2009 Lok Sabha Election. After this election VS has been considered the man behind the Uprising of LDF after the 2009 Parliament and 2010 Municipal election loses.[17]

After decades of a consistent pattern of swing between two coalition in the state elections, where people voted against the incumbent government consistently, Achuthanandan boast of a government with a no anti-incumbency factor ending in a 68–72 tally in the 140 seat state Assembly elections.

V.S. campaigning for LDF candidate V.B. Binu in Kanjirappally legislative constituency (2016 Assembly elections).

On 12 May 2013, three of his personal staffs V.K. Sasidharan (additional private secretary), A. Suresh (personal assistant) and K. Balakrishnan (press secretary) were ousted by the Politburo, which was entrusted by the CPI(M) central committee to decide on the action to be taken against them. They were expelled on charges of leaking information to media, according to CPI(M).[18] With the decision, Achuthanandan's arch-rival and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI(M)) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan appears to have won. The state committee of the party where Vijayan has a huge majority also wanted Achuthanandan to be removed from the post of leader of opposition but this was not done. "This is a clipping of the wings of Achuthanandan", said K.M. Shahjahan.[19]

• During the 2006 Assembly Elections, the party had to reverse its decision of not fielding Achuthanandan as a candidate. This was in reaction to organised protest marches by CPI(M) sympathisers across the state.
• He initiated the Munnar eviction mission. Massive portions of land allegedly grabbed over the years by resort owners and multinational companies like Tata Tea Limited. Later, the demolition team landed in the city of Kochi, and other cities in Kerala and recovered huge parts of land. The District Collector Raju Narayana Swamy, Inspector General of Police and the Person in charge were replaced. Meanwhile, Achuthanandan said that the Munnar mission would continue vigorously and extended to other areas[25][26][27]
• While he was the chief minister of the state, he had to frequently face struggle with Pinarayi Vijayan, the powerful head of the party which led the ruling coalition. Both of them headed for showdowns, which often prevented Achuthanandan from taking strong decisions. This power struggle often turned worse as both attacking each other. As a result, this group fight created two set of party leaders and even the ministers in the government, the name called the VS group and the Pinarayi group.[28][29]
• During the CPM state conference held in Kottayam, he was criticized strongly due to his style of functioning by a majority of Pinarayi Vijayan supporters (38/53) known as official faction and they demanded his ouster from Chief Minister. They warned that the party would lose seats if it goes for ahead parliamentary elections under his leadership.[30][31]
• On 10 July 2013, The High Court demanded a vigilance investigation against Achuthanandan for irregularities regarding funds up to 3 crore Rupees taken from the State Treasury. These funds were used to hire expensive out-of-state lawyers who appeared for the trail of cases against mafias in high court when he was CM.
• Achuthanandan was heavily criticized for his allegedly insensitive comments in regards to the family of the late NSG commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan who was slain while defending the city of Mumbai during the 2008 terrorist attacks. Under public criticism for not visiting the mourning family, the CM finally decided to visit them. But allegedly agitated by the perceived insult and insensitivity in sending police dogs to check in a house in mourning as well as Achuthanandan's not offering condolences in a timely manner, Sandeep's father requested that the minister not visit. When Achuthanandan attempted to enter the house, he was evicted by the father on live TV.[32][33] Smarting from the snub, Achuthanandan stated during a TV interview that "Is there any rule that both the Karnataka Chief Minister and Kerala Chief Minister should go together to his (Sandeep's) home? If it were not that it was Sandeep's house, not even a dog would have gone there."(translated to English from his reply in Malayalam).[34] Faced by heavy public criticism and furor over this, Achuthanandan eventually offered a public apology, which was accepted by Sandeep's father, bringing an end to the controversy.[35]

The anti-reclamation stir launched by the Kerala State Karshaka Thozhilali Union (KSKTU) at Mankompu in 1996–97, under the leadership of Achuthanandan created much controversy. This stir was claimed to be highlighting the serious problem of the massive conversion of paddy fields into other type of land, affecting the food security of the Kerala. But this soon developed into a crop destruction drive. The protest got the sobriquet following the violent methods and crop destruction resorted to by the KSKTU cadre. The stir attracted lot of public attention and Achuthanandan was forced to express his disapproval of any destruction of crops. 15 Years later, in November 2011, a UDF Minister, who is politically opposed to Achuthanadan, justified this struggle.[36] JanataDal Socialist leader and minister for Agriculture, K.P. Mohananan, MM,said, such a struggle was necessary as Conversion of Paddy fields to other type of crops is a serious concern.