Kerala Congress (M) leader and former state finance minister KM Mani died on Tuesday evening. He was the sitting MLA of Pala Assembly constituency, which he had represented for 52 years.
The 86-year-old politician was hospitalised on Sunday for respiratory ailments. After a check up, it was found that his kidneys were damaged and dialysis was performed, Mathrubhumi reported. He was suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for 17 years.
Mani is the only politician to be elected from one constituency for 13 consecutive elections, The News Minute reported. He was the founder of Kerala Congress (Mani), a key alliance partner of the United Democratic Front.
In March, Mani had named his close confidante Thomas Chazhikadan the party’s candidate for the Kottayam Lok Sabha seat.
He is survived by his wife and six children.
In 2015, Mani was forced to resign as the finance minister after he was accused of taking bribes in exchange for licences to bars and pubs serving alcohol. In March 2018, the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau had informed a Thiruvananthapuram court that it had found no evidence implicating the chairman of the Kerala Congress (Mani) in what is known as the “bar bribery scam”. However, the court in September 2018 had refused to accept the bureau’s report.
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