CHENNAI: KPCC Working president and Wayanad MP MI Shanawas (67) died early morning on Wednesday. Following the infection post his liver transplantation surgery, he had been under treatment in a private hospital in Chennai.

The death happened early morning at around 1:30 am.

Shanawas was admitted to Dr Rela Medical and Research Centre last month on October 31. The surgery took place on November 2. But his health condition worsened due to post-surgery infection.

Shanawas was born as the son of Adv M V Ibrahim Kutty and Noorjahan Begum on Spetember 22, 1951 in Kottayam. He passed MA English from Kozhikode Farooq College and took LLB from Ernakulam Law College.

Shanavas had begun his politics through the Kerala Students Union (KSU), the student outfit of the party in the state. During his KSU days, he held the post of the chairman of the Calicut university student body. He went on to become the vice-president of the Youth congress, joint secretary of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) and later it’s vice president as well.

Shanavas’ initial forays into electoral politics had setbacks. He contested from Vadakkekara constituency in 1987 and 1991 and then from Pattambi in 1996. He lost all three of them. He then contested Lok Sabha election from Chirayinkeezhu in 1999 and 2004, again to lose both times.

But five years later, the hilly constituency of Wayanad in north Kerala gave a seat in Lok Sabha for the first time with one of the biggest margins in that election. In 2014, he was re-elected from Wayanad, defeating Sathyan Mokeri of the LDF.

Earlier this year, he was appointed one of the three working presidents of the party along with Mavelikkara MP Kodikkunil Suresh and former Kannur MP K Sudhakaran. He is survived by wife Jubairi and children Amina and Haseeb.