(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Veteran Communist leader and former minister M V Raghavan (pictured) died in Kerala's Kannur district, according to his family.
Arrangements are being made for his funeral here today.
Raghavan, 81, was a brilliant orator. He was expelled from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) in 1985 due to difference of opinion over the formation of an alliance. Raghavan formed the Communist Marxist Party the next year and since then his party has been an ally of the Congress led United Democratic Front.
Though, he was a seven-time legislator, he became a minister on only two occasions (1991 to 1996 and 2001 to 2006).
He chose to contest from one constituency only once.
Raghavan, however, lost in the 1996, 2006 and 2011 assembly polls, after which he began suffering from age related illness and was keeping a low profile. Raghavan became a communist at the age of 16 and worked under the legendary Communist leader from Kerala, AK Gopalan.
He was a weaver in Kannur and rose form that position to become a trade union leader and later a powerful leader.
When the Communist party split in 1964, it was Raghavan who worked hard to ensure that the CPM does not loose to the CPI.
In 1985, Raghavan presented an alternate line before the CPI-M for forming an alliance with parties like the Muslim League and Kerala Congress in order to take on an alliance led by the Congress.
But he and his idea were rejected by the CPM. In 1987, he defeated CPM leader E P Jayarajan from the Azhikode assembly constituency. When the CPM came to power in 1996-2001, it took on Raghavan by arresting him in 1997.
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