Life of Oommen Chandy: From student leader to mass leader and chief minister of Kerala

Former Kerala chief minister and Congress veteran Oommen Chandy passed away on Tuesday. His family and Kerala Congress president K Sudhakaran broke the news. He was being treated for cancer and breathed his last at a Bengaluru hospital early July 18 morning.

Chandy was the longest-serving MLA in the Kerala Legislative Assembly and the only Indian chief minister to achieve the award for public service from the United Nations.

Oommen Chandy: From student leader to becoming Kerala’s CM twice

Born in the Kottayam district of Kerala, Chandy entered into the world of politics as an activist of Kerala Students Union (KSU), one of Kerala’s largest student organisations. KSU is the student wing of the Indian National Congress Party in the state. He was the unit president of the KSY at St. George High School, Puthupally, and later went on to become the State President of the organisation in 1970.

Since then, there has been only one winner in the Puthupally constituency- Oomen Chandy. The man was the sole reason for the Congress party in the state to win this assembly seat and represent it for fivedecades.

When Chandy entered the poll fray for the first time in 1970, Puthupally was considered to be a seat with the least chance to win for the Congress in the Kottayam district. He always remembered his debut in the political fray to be “a people’s election” which not only defined his political career but also shaped his lifelong relationship with the land and its people.

It was this personal connection along with his ever-rising stature as a mass leader that ensured his win every time on Puthupally's seat.

Apart from holding the position of Kerala’s CM twice, Chandy has been a minister in the Government of Kerala on four occasions.

Leader of the masses

Chandy was known for his humility and leading a simple life, he always put people’s interests before political interests. This was the reason why he was known as a mass leader. His political opponents even used to say that Chandy knew the people of Puthupally by their names.

The people of Puthupally also never lost their trust in him, even when he faced allegations in the solar scam at the peak of his career.

An incident that got talked about a lot in Kerala took place in 2016 when passengers on a bus from Kollam to Thiruvananthapuram found Oommen Chandy travelling with them. This was a few months after he was demitted from office as CM. The same year a photo of Chandy lying down on the lower berth of a sleeper class compartment in a Thiruvananthapuram-Kottayam train went viral.

Even as CM, he is said to have travelled to Delhi from Kerala by train on a few occasions.

(With inputs from agencies)

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