By IANS
Kollam (Kerala) : Former Kerala minister and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader Baby John passed away here Tuesday morning after towering over the state’s politics for over five decades. He was 87.
John, who was known as Kerala’s Kissinger for his formidable reputation as a political strategist, died of respiratory ailments at a private hospital. He had been bedridden since 1998 after suffering a stroke and is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
The funeral will take place at his hometown in Chavara Wednesday.
Reputed to be a shrewd politician, John was minister seven times under five different chief ministers – C. Achutha Menon, K. Karunakaran, A.K. Antony, P.K. Vasudevan Nair and E.K. Nayanar.
He quit active politics in 1998 after falling ill. But his son Shibu Baby John took over the reins in 2001. However, the RSP, of which John was general secretary, has now split into four factions.
A tall politician in every which way, John, who stood out in a crowd with his height and trademark big moustache, was known as a mass leader and a great organiser.
His skill in settling issues cutting across political lines was something that even his rivals respected.
John began his political career when he was still a student with the Congress. Those were the heady days of the freedom struggle. He became a teacher and then quit to pursue studies at Palayamkottai St Xavier’s College, from where he was expelled when he joined the Quit India movement.
In 1947, the year India got independence, John and his like-minded friends formed the Kerala Socialist Party. He joined the RSP two years later.
His entry into active politics led him to prison more than once and he earned the wrath of the Church for his association with the Communist parties.
His first electoral success came in 1952 with his being voted into the Travancore Cochin Legislative Assembly although he was campaigning from jail.
There was no looking back after that. From then, all the way till 1998, the only electoral defeat he suffered was in 1957 when he lost the assembly polls for the first Kerala assembly.