Senior Congress leader Kadavoor Sivadasan dead

Thiruvananthapuram: Veteran trade unionist and senior Congress leader Kadavoor Sivadasan passed away at a private hospital here early on Friday morning, party sources said. He was 87 and was under treatment for pneumonia.

A four-time legislator, Sivadasan was a minister in the Cabinets of K.Karunakaran and A.K.Antony.

Starting his political career as a trade union leader from his home district Kollam, Sivadasan was elected MLA on a Revolutionary Socialist Party ticket in 1980 and 1982. He later switched to the Congress, on whose ticket he won the 1991 and 2001 Assembly polls.

Sivadasan retired from politics due to his failing health after 2006.

His last rites would be held at Kollam, later in the day.