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Kochi: Eighty seven-year-old Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, who contested and spearheaded the Left Front campaign in the April 13 Assembly polls, emerged victorious at the hustings, while 92-year-old K R Gowri, the oldest candidate in the fray tasted defeat. Unmindful of his advanced age, Achuthanandan covered the length and breadth of the state and was the star campaigner for the LDF. The result was evident in the poll outcome asLeft candidates put up a stiff fight in most constituencies. In the run up to the polls, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi had taken a swipe at the veteran Marxist leader over his age, telling Kerala voters that if the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front wins, they would have a 92-year-old
Chief Minister by the next elections. Achuthanandan had given a sharp retort, describing the Gandhi scion as an 'Amul Baby' who had put up a lot of other 'Amul Babies' in the fray. Gandhi, projected as the youth face of Congress, had told a campaign meeting at Kochi that UDF was a mix of youth and experience, but that voters would have a 92-year-old Chief Minister if the LDF won and the next election comes around. The CPI(M) state committee had to reverse its earlier decision not to give Achuthandanan a ticket on 'health grounds' after intervention from the central party leadership. Achuthanandan won by over 23,000 votes against Latika Subash of Congress.
Octogenarians, septuagenarians and 92-year-old Gowri, once a firebrand leader, were among those in the poll arena, who
had to sweat it out with rivals half their age in the April 13 Assembly polls in Kerala.
Gowri, a former firebrand Communist leader and leader of JSS (Janadhipathiya Samrakshana Samithi), a UDF partner, was
defeated by LDF's P Thilothaman, in his forties. She has contested elections 16 times so far and lost only thrice-- the first in 1948 in her electoral debut, then in 1977 and in 2006. Gowri was revenue minister in the first elected Communist government headed by E M S Namboodiripad in 1957 and had piloted the first Land Reforms Bill. In Nemom, BJP's O Rajagopal (82) former Union minister of state for Railways, also did not find favour with the electorate. Rajagopal was defeated by CPI(M) MLA V Sivankutty. He had earlier unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha polls from the state capital in 2004. PTI
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Chief Minister by the next elections. Achuthanandan had given a sharp retort, describing the Gandhi scion as an 'Amul Baby' who had put up a lot of other 'Amul Babies' in the fray. Gandhi, projected as the youth face of Congress, had told a campaign meeting at Kochi that UDF was a mix of youth and experience, but that voters would have a 92-year-old Chief Minister if the LDF won and the next election comes around. The CPI(M) state committee had to reverse its earlier decision not to give Achuthandanan a ticket on 'health grounds' after intervention from the central party leadership. Achuthanandan won by over 23,000 votes against Latika Subash of Congress.
Octogenarians, septuagenarians and 92-year-old Gowri, once a firebrand leader, were among those in the poll arena, who
had to sweat it out with rivals half their age in the April 13 Assembly polls in Kerala.
Gowri, a former firebrand Communist leader and leader of JSS (Janadhipathiya Samrakshana Samithi), a UDF partner, was
defeated by LDF's P Thilothaman, in his forties. She has contested elections 16 times so far and lost only thrice-- the first in 1948 in her electoral debut, then in 1977 and in 2006. Gowri was revenue minister in the first elected Communist government headed by E M S Namboodiripad in 1957 and had piloted the first Land Reforms Bill. In Nemom, BJP's O Rajagopal (82) former Union minister of state for Railways, also did not find favour with the electorate. Rajagopal was defeated by CPI(M) MLA V Sivankutty. He had earlier unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha polls from the state capital in 2004. PTI
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