KOCHI: CPM leader and former finance minister V Viswanatha Menon passed away at private hospital in Kochi on Friday. He was 92. He was the finance minister in the E K Nayanar cabinet in 1987.

He was elected twice to the Parliament. He has presented five state budgets. He had the record for delivering the longest budget speech. The record of two hours and 35 minutes was later altered by K M Mani taking two hours 36 minutes and 25 seconds.

Menon who had served as corporation councilor, MP, MLA and minister later distanced with the party. He left the party after alleging that the CPM is functioning as Congress’ B Team. He left the party after Jyoti Basu announced that Sonia Gandhi would be the next prime minister.

The bypolls held in Ernakulam Lok Sabha constituency in 2004 was the second stage of his political career. He stood as a candidate with the support of BJP, BTR-EMS-AKG Janakeeya Samskarika Vedi against the party in the bypolls. That candidature was a shock for the Left Front.

Menon was a political activist in his youth, accused in the Communist attack on the Edappally police station. Starting his career as a student activist and leader for the freedom fight in his alma mater Maharaja's College, he became popularly known as Ambady Viswam among his peers, colleagues, seniors, and near ones. His father descends from the famous Nair family of Cochin Ambady.

Menon was one of the popular youths in Kochi at that time, due to his opinions and actions against injustice and oppression. A follower of Gandhi from childhood, he was inclined towards communism and socialism during his student days, due to the influence of prominent personalities around him, including his cousin A K Damodaran.

Menon was one of the earliest members of CPI in and around Kochi and played an essential role in erecting its base amidst the colonial/post-colonial period of the 1940s and early 1950s. He worked to spread the democratic ethos there. He worked among the party ranks for growth and against the suppression of the oppressed, after sacrificing his royal and comfortable life with his affluent family.

The caste system resulted in left the less fortunate castes never achieving equal treatment. This continuing injustice inspired Menon to adopt Socialism and later on Democracy, as a means of addressing these ills.

He served as a FACT union president for 12 years, and Indal union president for 14 years. He also led a Cochin Port union.

He is survived by his wife and two sons.