Senior CPI leader, ex-MLA P. Raju passes away

Kochi: Senior CPI leader and two-time former legislator P. Raju passed away here at a private hospital on Thursday. He was 73.

Raju had been under treatment for cancer for some time. He represented the Paravur Assembly constituency twice from 1991 till 2001, winning two successive elections.

Incidentally, at the 1996 Assembly polls, he defeated the present Leader of Opposition V.D.Satheesan by a slender margin of under 1,200 votes.

However, at the 2001 Assembly polls, Satheesan got the better of Raju by over 7,000 votes, and since then, Satheesan has not lost from the Assembly constituency.

Raju, during his one decade in the Kerala Legislative Assembly, established himself as a brilliant legislator and was known for his intervention and participation in debates in the Assembly.

He was well-versed in Assembly proceedings and used to come fully prepared before participating in debates in the Assembly.

Raju was also known for his soft and polite demeanor and was a respected politician, even by those who were politically opposed to him.

However, after his loss to Satheesan at the 2001 Assembly polls, Raju concentrated on building the party in the Ernakulam district. He was also the Ernakulam district CPI secretary.

In the past few years, he did not have the best of relations with his party. Raju rose in the party from his student days. His father, Sivan Pillai, also represented the Paravur Assembly constituency for three terms, including the first Assembly election held in Kerala in 1957. Pillai also wrote into election history books when, in 1982, for the first time in the country, electronic voting machines were used in 50 out of the 84 polling booths in the Assembly.

Raju is survived by his wife and one daughter.

Condolences poured in from various leaders cutting across political parties.