K. Karunakaran

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K. Karunakaran
K. Karunakaran
Constituency Thrissur
Born July 5, 1918 (1918-07-05) (age 89)
Kannur, Kerala
Political party Indian National Congress
Spouse Kalyanikutty Amma (Late)
Children K. Muralidharan (Murali) and Padmaja Venugopal
Residence Thrissur
As of May 13, 2006
Source: Govt. of Kerala

K. Karunakaran (born July 5, 1918) is a veteran Congress party leader, former Chief Minister of Kerala, Home minister of Kerala, and Minister of industries of India.

Born Kannoth Karunakaran Marar to Kannoth Ramunni Marar and Kannoth Kalyani Marasiyar in Kannur, he matriculated from Raja's High School and did his diploma in Design, Geometry and Painting from College of Arts Thrissur.

He started off as an activist in the Kochi Rajya Praja Mandalam and later entered electoral politics as member of the Thrissur Municipal Council from 1945 - 1947. He was a founding member of the INTUC. He was elected 7 times to the Kerala Legislative Assembly between 1965 and 1995 and served as Chief Minister three times.

K. Karunakaran was the home minister of Kerala during the emergency period. After the Emergency, the Rajan case rocked Kerala politics like no other issue before or hence, and K. Karunakaran was forced to step down as the case attracted national attention.It was a habeas corpus petition filed by T.V. Eachara Warrier seeking the state machinery produce his son Rajan ( a student of regional engineering college ,calicut who actively participated in protests against the emergency declared by smt.Indira government) in court. Rajan was supposedly killed by police by the order of karunakaran (then home minister) at kakkayam police camp.

Karunakaran is considered as a shrewd politician in Kerala. Karunakaran's crooked and untruthful behaviour are well depicted in autobiographical sketch of T.V. Eachara Warrier titled Memories of a father. The book is translated from Malayalam to English and is published by Asian Human Rights Commission and is available online at http://www.ahrchk.net/pub/mainfile.php/mof/. The High Court judgment issued in 1977 on the Habeas Corpus petition is given in the appendix section of the book. When T.V. Eachara Warrier died, the press asked for Karunakan's comments, he rebuked them with reply 'Who is T.V. Eachara Warrier? But what is Eachara Warrier's importance? What is his contribution to the country? Is he the representative of any political party or movement? Is he a littérateur?"[2]

Karunakaran was a member of the Congress Working Committee from 1969. In 1995, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha and served as the minister of industries in the Cabinet for a year. He was married to Kalyanikutty Amma and has a son and a daughter. Karunakaran's attempts at promoting his son and daughter have been widely cited as one of the root causes of in the Kerala section of the Congress party.factionalism

After A K Antony was elected to power in 2001, Karunakaran was on the warpath with the Government led by his own party and the party high command. After a series of unsuccessful attempts to regain supremacy in the Kerala Wing of the Indian National Congress marked by repeated criticisms of the Government, the dissidents led by him landed up in the bad books of the High Command. With the sharp increase in factional meetings held all over Kerala, mostly led by his son K Muraleedharan, Indian National Congress suspended Muraleedharan from the party. With Muraleedharan being pushed to the verge of political orphanage, Karunakaran left his party and formed a new political outfit with his as the President. Thus, on 1 May 2005 K Karunakaran (known to his followers as 'leader') formed a new party in Kerala National Congress (Indira). Later, the new party was renamed to Democratic Indira Congress(karunakaran). DIC(K) fought the recent elections as a congress ally. Despite the setback suffered to his party during state elections, Karunakaran remains a reasonable force in Kerala politics, mainly UDF. Karunakaran has merged his party with the Nationalist Congress Party, despite opposition from many senior leaders like T.M.Jacob who has since left the Party. There are many corruption and political allegations leveled against Karunakaran and his son, over the years. He is not well respected by many because of his deviation from ideological principles, for the sake of favourism to his family and close associations. In December 10, 2007 K Karunakaran and his daughter Padmaja returned to their parent party following a spilt of. However his son Murali dissociated himself from his father and continued in NCP.


  • Relentless court battles held between K. Karunakaran and Nawab Rajendran including the follow up of the famous Thattil John murder case.
  • Rajan case
  • Palm Oil Import Scam


1,2. K.Karunakaran now returned to Congress from NCP

[edit] References

Biography, K.Karunakaran by Vrindavanam Venugopalan ,B.A.,(Hons.) M.A.,M.A.,M.Ed.. published in malayalam,.1992

[edit] External links

Preceded by
C. Achutha Menon		 Chief Minister of Kerala
1977– 1977		 Succeeded by
A. K. Antony
Preceded by
E.K. Nayanar		 Chief Minister of Kerala
1981– 1987		 Succeeded by
E.K. Nayanar
Preceded by
E.K. Nayanar		 Chief Minister of Kerala
1991– 1995		 Succeeded by
A. K. Antony		 
Biography of K Karunakaran written by Vrindavanam Vanugopalan can give more details.
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