Former Kerala Chief Minister and veteran communist leader VS Achuthanandan died in Thiruvananthapuram after a prolonged illness on Monday.

He was 101.

According to reports, he was admitted to a hospital on June 23 after suffering a heart attack.

He was not in active politics for the past five years after suffering a stroke.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expressed its profound grief at the death of the leader.

In 1940, the veteran leader was just seventeen years old when he joined the Communist Party.

VS was elected to the State Committee of the united Communist Party in 1956 and to its National Council in 1958, as per the CPI-M party website.

He was the last of the surviving 32 members of the National Council who left to form the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

He served as the Secretary of the Kerala State Committee of the CPI(M) from 1980 to 1991.

He was elected to the Central Committee of the Party in 1964 and became a member of the Polit Bureau in 1985.

He was relieved from the Central Committee, of which he had become a Special Invitee, due to age, in 2022.

VS was elected to the Kerala assembly for seven terms.

He served as Leader of Opposition for two terms and was the Chief Minister from 2006 to 2011.

As per the CPI-M website, his tenure as Chief Minister was marked by several legislative and administrative measures for the welfare of the working people.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor mourned his death and wrote on X: "Mourning the passing of former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan (here, releasing my book 'The Elephant, the Tiger & the Cellphone' in Kerala, 2008).