Senior Congress leader from Kerala and Wayanad Lok Sabha legislator MI Shanavas died in Chennai early on Wednesday. He was 67.
Shanavas’s health had deteriorated due to infections after a liver transplant surgery on November 2, reported Manorama Online. His body will be brought back to Kochi on Wednesday afternoon and the last rites will be done on Thursday.
Shanavas was appointed working president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee in September. He was the vice-president of the Youth Congress in 1978, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee joint secretary in 1983 and its vice-president in 1985, reported The Indian Express. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Wayanad in 2009 and in 2014.
“A man of good heart [and] spirit, I last saw him on his appointment as one of @INCKerala’s Working Presidents,” tweeted Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. “A painful loss for all of us.”
Kerala Pradesh Mahila Congress said Shanavas’s death was a “big loss for the Congress and for the state”.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala also expressed their condolences, PTI reported.
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