Oommen Chandy: Former Kerala Chief Minister Passes Away At 79; Read To Know About His Record Breaking Political Career

Oommen Chandy, the former Chief Minister of Kerala died at the age of 79 in the early hours of Tuesday. The news came through a Facebook post that was shared by the son of the late minister. The Facebook post stated, “Appa has passed away.” Chandy was staying in Bengaluru for treatment in a health facility as he was ill for quite a long time. He was suffering from Cancer, also he was being treated for the same in Germany.

Political career that started at the age of 27

The political leader belonged to the Congress party. He served as the Chief Minister of Kerala for two terms, that is from 2004 to 2006 and then from 2011 to 2016. He won state assembly polls at the age of 27 for the first time in year 1970. At the time, he served as the state president of the Youth Congress, and he eventually went on to win 11 elections in a row.

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Record-breaking political career of Oommen Chandy

One key and rare feature of his political career is that he only represented his home constituency – Puthuppally in the last 50 years of his life. Further, Mr. Oommen became the longest-serving member of the state legislature. He represented his constituency for 18,728 days. He was a record breaker, who broke record of former  Kerala Congress (M) supremo late K M Mani.

During his six-decade political career, the veteran of the Congress has held the positions of Leader of the Opposition and Minister in several cabinets four times each.

The CBI gave Chandy a clean bill of health in December 2022 on the sexual exploitation claim made by Saritha Nair, the main defendant in the solar scam case that had shaken Kerala when Chandy’s government was in office over ten years earlier.