Thomas Chandy, State president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and legislator in the Kerala Assembly from Kuttanad, died at his home here on Friday.
He had been battling cancer for sometime and was aged 72 years. He is survived by his wife Mercy, two daughters and a son.
Chandy held the Transport portfolio in the current Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government for a few months in 2017 before being forced to step down following allegations of land grab and lake reclamation for a resort promoted by a company in which he was a director. A native of Chennankari in Alappuzha, Chandy had an eventful public life which began with the KSU and the Youth Congress.
Even after shifting base to Kuwait, he remained closely linked to the Congress.
The school he set up with friends was doing well when the Gulf War erupted and he had to return empty-handed. Once the war was over, ‘Kuwait Chandy’, as he eventually came to be known, returned to the Gulf to build a formidable business empire with footprints in Kerala as well. It was his association with former Chief Minister K. Karunakaran that spurred his political fortunes.
When Karunakaran quit Congress to form the Democratic Indira Congress(K), he was offered the Kuttanad seat which he won comfortably in 2006. Five years later, he got elected from the same seat on a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ticket. He was with the LDF by then. While there was bickering within the LDF in fielding him from Kuttanad for a third time in 2016, he came up trumps.
Allegations
However, his brief stint as a Minister was marred by allegations But after his reluctant resignation as Minister following severe drubbing from the High Court, he became a strong man in the party and rose to lead it in the State. But a vigilance probe into the allegations continued to trouble him.
His body will be kept at a private hospital in Ernakulam till December 23 when it will be taken to Alappuzha for the public to pay homage. The funeral will be held at St. Paul’s Mar Thoma Church at Chennankariat 2 p.m. on December 24.
