Senior CPM leader N Sankaraiah passes away at 102

CHENNAI: N Sankaraiah, one of the founder members of the CPM, passed away in Chennai on Wednesday. He was 102. He died while undergoing treatment for fever at the Apollo Hospital.

He walked out of the CPI National Council on April 11 in 1964 along with VS Achuthanandan and formed the CPM. Sankaraiah is one of the two surviving comrades among the 32 comrades who founded the CPM.

Sankaraiah was born on July 15 in 1922 in Madurai. He studied in Tuticorin till fifth standard. Later joined Madurai Saint School. He became a member of the CPI at 17.

Sankaraiah was one of the communists jailed during the Indo-China war in 1962. CPI general secretary P C Joshi came to Madurai in 1964. One lakh people had attended the meet then and it was due to the ability of Sankaraiah. When there was an attempt to suppress the Communist Party in 1965, he spent 17 months in jail. Sankaraiah was a prisoner in Kannur Jail at the time of the hanging of Kayyur comrades.

Sankaraiah was a firebrand while studying in Madurai American College in 1941. He was not allowed to complete his studies because of his participation in the freedom struggle and was captured and imprisoned by the British Army. He became a mark in the history of freedom struggle and spent eight years in jail. Sankaraiah became independent on the previous day of the country becoming independent.

He entered the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly as a CPM member in 1967, 1977 and 1980 and was the state secretary of the party for a long time. Sankaraiah used to say that it was during his time that Tamil was first spoken in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. There was no permission to speak Tamil then. His wife Navamani Ammal predeceased him. She was active in organizational activities and died in 2016. He leaves behind his three children.