Veteran Socialist leader, freedom fighter and former Member of Parliament P. Viswambharan died here on Friday. He was 91.
Mr. Viswambharan, who had entered the political arena participating in the Quit India Movement, played a key role in the formation of the Students Congress in former Travancore and joined the Socialist Party in 1949. He went on to become the State general secretary of the Praja Socialist Party in 1964 and the State chairman of the Socialist Party when the various socialist groups merged to form the party in 1971.
He played an important part in the resistance to Emergency as State secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). He became the State president of the Janata Party in 1980 and later a national executive committee member of the Janata Dal. In 1954, Mr. Viswambharan was elected to the Travancore-Cochin Legislative Assembly and in 1960 to the Kerala Legislative Assembly. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram in 1967.
During his early days, Mr. Viswambharan was a journalist, working in papers such as Malayali, Mathrubhumi, Swathanthrakaahalam and Desabandhu . He was the founder-general secretary of the Travancore-Cochin Journalists’ Union and a member of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists national council.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran, CPI State secretary Kanam Rajendran, BJP State president Kummanam Rajasekharan, and LDF covnener Vaikom Viswan, among others, condoled Mr. Viswambharan’s death.
