COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Nayanar beats Karunakaran!

Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Erambala Krishnan Nayanar Friday became the longest serving chief minister of Kerala, eclipsing Congress veteran Kunnoth Karunakaran.

With this, the 80-year-old also became, after West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, the second communist leader to rule a state for the maximum number of years.

In 1957, Kerala had achieved the rare credit of electing the first communist ministry in the world.

Nayanar Thursday completed 3,247 days in office, a day more than the existing record set by 81-year-old Karunakaran.

The achievement is remarkable, given the murky coalition politics in the state where instability ruled till a decade ago.

A significant aspect is that Nayanar has been chief minister for 3,246-odd days in three terms (20 months in1980-81, four years during 1987-91 and from 1996 onwards), while Karunakaran achieved it in four terms (a month in 1977, two months and 20 days during 1981-82, four years and 10 months during 1982-87 and three years and nine months in 1991-95).

However, Nayanar could not break the record of Communist Party of India leader C Achutha Menon, who ruled the state continuously for 2,364 days.

Karunakaran ruled at a stretch for 1,767 days, and Nayanar for 1,551 days.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report