Former minister and KC (B) chairman R Balakrishna Pillai, 86, passes away

Kollam: Kerala Congress (B) chairman R Balakrishna Pillai passed away on Monday early morning due to age related ailments. He was 86. He was admitted to a private hospital in Kottarakkara in Kollam a few days back and was in ventilator support. The end came at the hospital. It was K B Ganeshkumar, son of Balakrishna Pillai, who announced the death news.

He was first elected to the Assembly in 1960 from Pathanapuram. Later he won from Kottarakkara in 1965. He won from the Kottarakkara Assembly constituency consecutively from 1977 to 2006. In 2006, Pillai was defeated by CPM’s Aisha Potty and after that he did not contest.

Balakrishnan Pillai held various portfolios namely Transport and Power.

KC (B) was an ally of United Democratic Front led by the Congress and joined the Left Democratic Front in 2018 December.

Born in 1935 in Vaikom near Kottarakara, Balakrishna Pillai was son of Keezhoote Raman Pillai and Karthayani Amma. He has 2 daughters and a son. His wife Valsala pre-deceased him. His son actor K B Ganesh Kumar has served as state minister during 2001-03 and 2011-13.

He was a minister for several years in various ministries headed by C Achutha Menon, K Karunakaran, E K Nayanar, and A K Antony.

Pillai's over six-decade-long political career saw many ups and downs.

He had to resign from the ministry for his speech in the 1980s in which he had called for an agitation on the lines of the militancy in Punjab against the central government for ignoring Kerala's development needs.

He was the first minister in Kerala who was sentenced to jail for corruption.

The Supreme Court had in February 2011 sentenced Pillai and two others to one-year imprisonment for allegedly abusing their positions in the award of a contract for the Idamalayar hydroelectric power project during his tenure as power minister from 1982-1985 in the K Karunakaran ministry.

From 2017 onwards, he had been serving as the chairman of the Kerala State Welfare Corporation for Forward Communities, with cabinet rank.

Pillai is survived by his three children.

His son Ganesh Kumar, who is also a former minister, was re-elected to the Kerala Assembly as an LDF candidate from his family bastion Pathanapuram. 

Pillai had acted in 2 films namely Vedikettu and Ival Oru nadody. With PTI inputs