Chavara MLA Vijayan Pillai dies at 69

Kollam: Chavara MLA N Vijayan Pillai passed away on Sunday. The 69-year-old MLA, who was undergoing treatment for cancer at a private hospital in Kochi for the past few months, died on Sunday morning.
The cremation will be held on the premises of his residence - Vijayamandiram, in Charava at 10am on Monday.
Vijayan Pillai, son of Narayana Pillai, a locally popular politician, stepped into politics through RSP.In his over four-decade-long political career he had served both in the LDF and the UDF. He was a member of the Chavara grama panchayat committee for 21 years since 1971. He was also elected to the district panchayat from the Thevalakkara division. Following a rift in RSP, he joined Congress in 2000. But, when K Karunakaran formed the Democratic Indira Congress, he joined the party. Later, when DIC merged with the Congress, Pillai returned to the Congress. But during the UDF rule in 2011, he quit Congress in protest of the ‘abkari’ policy of the UDF. Following this, he joined the K R Aravindakshan faction of the CMP and contested as a CMP independent of the LDF.
Neendakara taluk hospital, Panmana ayurveda hospital, Neendakara cancer centre etc were built during his tenure.
He is survived by wife Suma, and children Sujith, Sreejith and Sreelakshmi.
State leaders, including chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, ministers K Raju, J Mercy Kuttymma, MP N K Premachandran, MLAs O Rajagopal, M Mukesh, M Noushad CPM district secretary S Sudevan, DCC president Bindhu Krishna, condoled his death.