Congress MP MI Shanavas passes away

Member of Parliament from Wayanad and senior Congress leader MI Shanavas passed away in a hospital in Chennai in the early hours of Wednesday. Shanavas, who was undergoing treatment in a speciality hospital following a lung transplant, passed away at around 1:30 am on Wednesday following a deterioration in health.

67-year-old Shanavas, who was also the current working president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), was born to Advocate Ibrahimkutty and Noorjahan Begum on September 22, 1951, in Kottayam.

Shanavas completed a Masters degree in English literature from Farook College in Kozhikode and an LLB from Law College in Ernakulam. He began his political journey as a student activist of the Kerala Students Union (KSU), the student union of the Congress Party in Kerala.

During the period of 1972-73, Shanavas was the Student’s Union Chairman at Calicut University and in 1978, he became the Vice President of the Youth Congress. He was elected as the KPCC Joint Secretary in 1983 and in 1985, he became the vice president of the KPCC.

Even though Shanavas did not manage to win during the Assembly elections held in 1987, 1991, 1996 and during the Lok Sabha elections in 1999 and 2004, he managed to win by a huge margin of 1,53,439 votes during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, also emerging as the candidate who won the highest number of votes.

In 2010, citing ill health, he had stayed away from active politics for a brief period of time only to return later. During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he again won by a margin of 20,870 votes.

The 67-year-old Congress MP had survived cancer two years ago but suffered a relapse, following which he was admitted to a hospital in Chennai earlier in November. On November 5, his condition started getting worse.

His mortal remains will be brought to Kochi on Wednesday. The last rites are expected to be held at 10 am on Thursday at the Thottathum Padi Juma Masjid in Kochi.