Congress leader in Kerala Satheesan Pacheni, passed away on Thursday, October 27, over a week after he was hospitalised due to a haemorrhage. A prominent leader of the Congress in Kannur, Pacheni was admitted to a private hospital on October 19 after suffering a haemorrhage, and passed away there. The cremation will be held at Payyambalam in the district on Friday. He is survived by his wife KV Reena and children Jawahar and Sania.
Pacheni was instrumental in strengthening the Congress in the district. Born in 1968, his political activity began with the Kerala Students Union (KSU), the students' wing of the Congress. Later, he became a General Secretary of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee from 2001. He was the District Congress Committee (DCC) chief from 2016 to 2021.
Pacheni, however, was not very successful in electoral politics. He lost all the elections he fought, but became popular by giving a strong fight to CPI(M) stalwart VS Achuthanandan in the 2001 Assembly elections, where the two contested for the Malampuzha seat in Palakkad district. He lost to Achuthanandan again in 2006 from the same constituency. He had also contested the Lok Sabha elections from Palakkad in 2009, Assembly elections from Kannur constituency in 2016 and 2021. Pacheni is known for leading the work to build a district office — Congress Bhavan — for the party in Kannur, which is a CPI(M) fortress.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condoled the death saying that with his death lost an energetic public worker.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K Sudhakaran also condoled Pacheni’s death, and spoke about the latter’s dedication to the party. "He was the party's strength during the crisis. Failures did not shatter him. He was a brother to me," Sudhakaran recalled.
All India Congress Committee (Organisation) General Secretary KC Venugopal said that Pacheni was one of the secular faces of the party. Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan said that Pacheni had always shouldered the responsibilities the party assigned him. "He was a vibrant leader who spread the energy to his colleagues," Satheesan said.
Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy recalled that Pacheni was always at the forefront of agitations. "He had the willpower to face adversities. His contributions to build up the party in the stronghold of the CPI(M) is immense," he said.