Ninety-seven year old CPI(M) leader and former Chief Minister of Kerala VS Achuthanandan took the first dose of COVID-19 vaccination on Saturday morning. The veteran Communist leader wrote about his experience on Facebook.
"Today is an important day in the fight against COVID-19. I am sharing the satisfaction and happiness of taking the COVID-19 vaccination at the General Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram at 9.30 in the morning. We will go forward with caution, with the confidence that we can survive this," he wrote.
On January 31 this year, Achuthanandan announced that he was stepping down as Chairman of the State Administrative Reforms Commission, a position he held since the Left Democratic Front (LDF) came to power in 2016. The former Chief Minister said in a press statement that health reasons prevented him from continuing his duties. He could not convene meetings or hold discussions since he had been following strict instructions from doctors after suffering a haemorrhage in the brain.
He also mentioned in the statement of submitting 11 study reports to the government as part of his job after travelling across the state and meeting with people.
Achuthanandan, who was Chief Minister of the state between 2006 and 2011, was active during the LDF campaigns of 2011 and 2016 assembly elections. It is believed that his speeches, very popular among the people, played a big role in the LDF giving stiff competition to the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) in 2011 as well as in coming to power five years later.
He was even active during the campaign of former Thiruvananthapuram Mayor VK Prasanth in his candidacy for the Vattiyoorkavu constituency bye-election in October 2019. Prasanth won that election. Achuthanandan is also a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Malampuzha constituency of Palakkad.