Pinarayi Vijayan

Vijayan was born on 24 May 1945 in Pinarayi village of Malabar district in Madras Presidency, as the youngest son of Koran and Kalyani. He had 14 siblings of which only three survived. After graduating school, he worked as a handloom weaver for a year before joining for Pre–university course in the Government Brennen College, Thalassery. Subsequently, he earned B.A. Economics degree from the same college.[7][8]

Pinarayi Vijayan entered politics through student union activities at Government Brennen College, Thalassery. He eventually joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1964. Vijayan became Kannur district secretary of the Kerala Students Federation (KSF), which later became the Students Federation of India (SFI). He went on to become the state secretary and subsequently the state president of KSF. He then moved on to Kerala State Youth Federation (KSYF), which later became the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI). He became the president of the state committee. During that period, when communists in Kerala were organising the political activities from different hide-outs, Pinarayi Vijayan was imprisoned for one and a half years.

Later he was elected as the president of the Kerala state co-operative bank. During the emergency, he was arrested and tortured by police. He became the Kannur district secretary of the CPI(M) when M.V. Raghavan left the party over the 'alternative document' row. Within three years, he became a member of the State Secretariat. He was elected to the Assembly in 1970, 1977 and 1991 from Kuthuparamba, in 1996 from Payyanur and in 2016 from Dharmadom. He was the Minister for Electric power and Co-operatives in the E.K. Nayanar ministry from 1996 to 1998. In 1998, he became the state secretary of the CPI(M), following the death of the incumbent Chadayan Govindan. He was elected to the Politburo of the CPI(M) in 2002.[7]

On 26 May 2007 the CPI(M) suspended Pinarayi Vijayan and V. S. Achuthanandan from the Politburo for their public remarks on each other. Pinarayi was reinstated into the Politburo later.[9]

He is married to Kamala Vijayan and has two children, T Veena and Vivek Kiran. His wife is a retired teacher. Their son studied MBA at Brimmingham University and now works in HSBC bank, in Abu Dhabi and daughter Veena, after completing a ten-year long career in the information technology (IT) sector, started an IT company of her own in 2015 in Bangalore. T Veena had worked for 8 years in Oracle and then was the CEO of RP Techsoft, a company owned by Malayali NRI businessman Ravi Pillai in Thiruvananthapuram. Vijayan and his wife resides in the official residence of the Chief Minister at Trivandrum.[10][11]

• The SNC Lavalin controversy in Kerala was a major allegation that rocked Kerala politics. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India report had stated that the deal Vijayan had struck as electricity minister in 1998 with Lavalin, a Canadian firm, for the repair of three generators, had cost the state exchequer a staggering Rs 375 crores. On 16 January 2007, Kerala High Court ordered a CBI enquiry into the SNC Lavalin case.[12] There are also reports that the CAG did not report any losses to state exchequer, but that the project did not yield commensurate gains.[13] On 21 January 2009, CBI filed a progress report on the investigation in the Kerala high court. Pinarayi Vijayan had been named as the 9th accused in the case.[14][15] CPI(M) backed Pinarayi saying that the CBI move was "politically motivated". Party viewed the implication of Pinarayi in the case is to settle scores with the CPM after the party withdrew its support to the UPA government.[15] The CPM led Kerala Government decided not to let Vijayan to be prosecuted in the case.[16] Over-ruling the cabinet recommendation, the Governor allowed CBI to prosecute Vijayan based on prima facie evidence.[17][18] Though CPI(M) called Governor's move un-constitutional, then Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said there is nothing surprising or wrong in Governor's decision.[19][20][21][22] On 5 November 2013, the CBI special court discharged Pinarayi Vijayan and the others accused from the list of accused in the SNC-Lavalin Case. The court has allowed a plea made by Pinarayi Vijayan asking his name to be removed from the list of accused in the case. The court held that there isn't any proof of dishonest and fraudulent intentions, abuse of official position and cheating.

• On 16 February 2007 the airport security in Chennai Airport recovered five bullets from Vijayan's baggage. The Chennai airport security let him off after receiving a faxed copy of his license.[23]
• As CPI(M) state secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan demanded that the Catholic Church in Kerala withdraw a controversial pastoral letter. The letter recommended a "liberation struggle" on the lines of the one in the 1950s to liberate the education sector in Kerala from state control, so that the management could charge fees and capitation without government intervention.[24]
• On 16 October 2007, Pinarayi called Paul Chitilapally, the bishop of Thamarassery in Kerala, a "wretched creature". He was speaking at a memorial remembrance of Mathai Chacko, MLA from Thamarassery and a CPI(M) member. He said "A lie is a lie, and just because it is uttered by a bishop it does not become a holy lie." Later, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in arms against the CPI(M) leadership for his comments against the bishop. However, he repeated the same and stuck to his comments. This led to heated discussion among the Catholic community across the state to protest against his speech by closing all educational institutions run by the church.[25][26]

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  Close up image of Pinarayi Vijayan
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  Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurating ESAF Small Finance Bank at Thrissur
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  Pinarayi Vijayan with the recipient of Vanita Ratnam Award 2018
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  Pinarayi Vijayan with police officers

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pinarayi Vijayan.

• Pinarayi Vijayan discusses the future of the left in India. Tehelka, Volume 12 Issue 17, Dated 25 April 2015.