CPI (M) veteran VS Achuthanandan will be contesting for the fourth time from Malampuzha constituency.

He had won from Malampuzha in the last assembly elections in 2006.

VS started his political career as a trade union worker in 1938 and later became a member of the Travancore State Congress. He joined the Communist Party in 1940 and became a member of the undivided CPI state Secretariat in 1957.

He walked out of the CPI national council along with 32 other leaders in 1964 to form the CPI (M). He was CPI (M) State Secretary from 1980 to 1992.

VS is the only founding member of CPI(M) who is still alive.

He was a Politburo member of CPI (M) from 1985 till 2009 when he was removed following a factional feud within the party.

VS was the chief minister of Kerala from 2006 to 2011 and has been the Leader of the Opposition from 1992-1996, 2001-2006 and 2011-2016.