Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier keeps up pace with India's oldest election candidate K R Gowri Amma, who has been campaigning vigorously in her 17th election
'Here is a woman who has got widespread appreciation for her work.' 'Social media was full of posts wanting her as the chief ministerial candidate.' 'This kind of popularity did not go well within the party.' 'See, today the party is Pinarayi Vijayan!'
Legendary Marxist firebrand K R Gowri, one of the founding leaders of the Communist movement in Kerala and the lone woman member in the state's first cabinet, died at a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.
CPI-M veteran Pinarayi Vijayan was elected its Parliamentary party leader, paving the way for his successive stint as chief minister of Kerala.
The harvest festival is incomplete without this humble and easy-to-make porridge.
Personal competence, where it should have been acknowledged and appreciated, was sacrificed for that oft heard line: Party-is-supreme. It angered that at a time when lives are at stake amidst the pandemic, the government didn't deem continuity in leadership important for the health portfolio, observes Shyam G Menon.
She was capable of a level of human compassion that is rare today among politicians, recalls Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, who knew the Communist legend K R Gowri, who passed into the ages on May 11, from his childhood.
There are 13 new faces, including two women, in the cabinet. Five ministers had held positions in previous LDF ministries.
'You can fight to win leadership of a party, yet join party rivals to win a general election in the US. The fact that dissent is not rebellion is not really appreciated in India, where we are used to the 'High Command' culture,' says T V R Shenoy.