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Achuthanandan steps in to preserve Gopalan’s home

By IANS,

Thiruvananthapuram : Veteran Communist hardliner and Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan Tuesday stepped in to ensure that the Kannur house of his former colleague and legendary communist leader A.K. Gopalan, popularly known as AKG, is preserved.

“Following media reports that AKG’s house in Peralassery was being knocked down by the present owner to built a new one, the chief minister asked the Kannur collector to go there and begin a dialogue with the present owner,” Achuthanandan’s political secretary C.P. Narayanan told IANS.

The two-storeyed house stands in a plot of less than 10 cents and is owned by Sadasivan, son of AKG’s sister. He works in the Middle East.

The demolition work started Sunday but was stopped Monday after Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) activists felt that it was not right to demolish the house of their leader.

“It has to be preserved. We will wait for the report from the collector,” Narayanan said.

Local CPI-M leaders are also involved in talks with Sadasivan.

In 1963, Achuthanandan, along with AKG and 30 others, walked out of a meeting of the undivided Communist Party of India, paving the way for the formation of the CPI-M.

AKG was a five-time Lok Sabha member. The state party headquarters and the party office in Delhi have also been named after him.

He died in 1977 at the age of 72. His wife Susheela Gopalan was the industry minister in the cabinet of E.K. Nayanar in Kerala from 2001-06. AKG’s son-in-law P. Karunakaran is the present CPI-M Lok Sabha member from Kasargod.