Friday, September 9 2005 12:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Thiruvananthapuram: Veteran Communist Party of India (CPI) leader and former Lok Sabha member, K V Surendranath, died here this morning (Sept 9, 2005), party sources said.

Surendranath (80) had been keeping indifferent health for quite some time. He was a bachelor.

He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram in 1996 and had earlier served as MLA for three terms, representing his home constituency Nedumangad.

A scholar and intellectual, Surendranath was known for his spartan lifestyle and unblemished public life full of personal sacrifices for the causes he stood for.

Surendranath was an astute environmental campaigner joining force with greens in the state on issues like conservation of Silent Valley forests.

Though a disciplined communist and keen trade unionist, Surendranath was reputed as liberal Marxist opposed to doctrinaire approach to issues.

Entering public life in his student days in the thick of freedom movement, Surendranath became a Communist Party member in 1945. After a stint as journalist in an English daily, he opted for a full time political career.

He went underground during the 1946-47 Punnapra Vayalar struggle and after the party was banned in 1948 in the wake of the Calcutta theses which called for direct struggle against the post-Independent Government in the country.