Veteran Communist Party of India leader and former Kerala [Images] chief minister P K Vasudevan Nair died in New Delhi on Tuesday.

He died of multiple organ failure brought about by chronic heart ailment and diabetes.

PKV, 79, leaves behind his wife, three sons and two daughters.

Padayatt Kesavapillai Vasudevan Nair, four-time member of Parliament and leader of CPI's Parliamentary Group in the Lok Sabha, breathed his last at 3.35 pm at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where he was admitted last week after an infection in his lungs developed into pneumonia.

His condition worsened after his kidneys stopped functioning, CPI secretary D Raja said.

Born in Kidangur village in Kottayam district of central Kerala, PKV entered politics as an activist of the All India Students Federation.

The initial years were tumultuous as AISF, which was part of the then undivided Communist Party of India, was fighting against British imperialism.

PKV, who represented Thiruvananthapuram constituency in the Lok Sabha, plunged into active politics when he joined CPI in 1945 while he was still in college.