Kochi: 86-year-old Kerala Congress (M) leader K M Mani who was admitted to a private hospital for chest infection and been kept under close medical observation passed away yesterday. He is survived by his wife and six children.
The former state Finance Minister has been suffering from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) for several years and was undergoing treatment at the VPS Lakeshore hospital for pulmonary disease. He breathed his last at 4.57 pm yesterday.
Political leaders such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Kerala Governor P Sathasivam, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan, Congress leader K C Venugopal and BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai condoled his death. Hundreds of people visited the hospital and paid their homage to him. According to media reports, his body will be taken to Kottayam this morning and later to his home town Pala. The funeral is said to take place at St Thomas Cathedral, Pala, on Thursday at 2 pm.
He was the party candidate for Kottayam seat for the 23 April Lok Sabha elections but was not seen in the election campaign due to frequent hospitalisation and recently he declared his close confidante and Kerala Congress(M) leader Thomas Chazhikadan as the UDF candidate in Kottayam seat. The veteran leader had been one of the leading figures of Kerala politics for nearly five decades. He was the former state finance minister and has been an MLA of Pala assembly constituency for 50 consecutive years and had presented 13 budgets over the years.
The bar-bribery scam in 2015 cast a shadow over his political career and the Kerala Assembly witnessed absolute bedlam on 13 March 2015 when Mani rose to present the 13th budget and he was forced o resign as finance minister from the Oommen Chandy-led government.
The Kerala Congress(M), led by Mani, is a key ally of the Congress-led UDF in the state. Mani had quit the alliance over differences with the leaders of the state Congress following UDF’s defeat in the Assembly polls in 2016. The party returned to the UDF fold last year after settling the differences with the Congress.