Nationalist Congress Party state president Uzhavoor Vijayan died at a private hospital in Ernakulam on Sunday morning. He was 65.
He had been hospitalized for a week for cardiac and gastrointestinal ailments. He was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit on Saturday night. His condition deteriorated on Sunday and he died at 7am, reports Manorama Online.
Vijayan, who suffered from renal failure, was admitted to a private hospital in Kottayam last month. He was then shifted to a hospital in Ernakulam last week.
His body will be kept at Thirunakkara in Kottayam for the public to pay homage . The cremation will be held on Monday. He began his political career by working in KSU, the Students' Wing of the Congress. When the Congress spilt he joined he Kerala Congress (S). Later Congress (S) merged with NCP. The party is now an ally of the ruling Left Democratic Front.
Vijayan, a well-known face of the NCP in Kerala, worked to keep the party, with a rather small base, united.
He had worked as the Congress (S) Kottayam district president and also as the state working president of INLC, the trade union wing of the NCP. A friendly face, he was known for being calm and composed, even in a crisis.
He chose not to hit out at the media, even he was faced with harsh questions following the resignation of his party colleague AK Saseendran from the ministry. A good orator, party workers admired him for his witty speeches.
More than being active in parliamentary politics, Vijayan believed in leading the party from the front. He had contested in only one election – the 2001 Assembly polls, where he took on Kerala Congress (M) chairman K M Mani at Pala in Kottayam but lost by a margin of 22,301 votes.
He was born in 1952 at Karakunnam Veetil at Uzhavur in Kottayam. He is survived by wife Chandramani and daughters Vandana and Varsha.