M. Veerankutty. File
| Photo Credit: S. RAMESHKURUP
Senior Congress leader, former Kozhikode District Congress Committee (DCC) president, and the first chairperson of the Kerala State Minorities Commission, M. Veerankutty, 86, passed away on Tuesday (September 1, 2026) midnight.
A native of Edavannappara in Malappuram district, Mr. Veerankutty began his political life as a socialist activist. He was once the State functionary of the Indian Students’ Organisation. Mr. Veerankutty later joined the Congress party. During the split in the Congress, he aligned himself with Indira Gandhi. In a political career spanning several decades, Mr. Veerankutty served the party in various key roles, including as the Kozhikode district president of the Youth Congress and as the DCC vice-president. He later succeeded P. Sankaran as the Kozhikode DCC president.
His political life was not without flashpoints. In November 2001, the Kozhikode police, led by the then City Police Commissioner Vijay Sakhare, arrested him from a lodge in Kozhikode city early in the morning in connection with a controversial speech he had made earlier. This sparked off intense intra-party turmoil in the Congress-led United Democratic Front between the ‘I’ faction led by senior Congress leader K. Karunakaran and the ‘A’ faction led by Chief Minister A.K. Antony. Mr. Karunakaran’s son K. Muraleedharan was the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president then. However, when Mr. Karunakaran and Mr. Muraleedharan split from the Congress to form the National Congress (Indira) in 2005, which was later renamed Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran), Mr. Veerankutty chose to remain with the party.
He contested the 2006 Kerala Assembly election from Nadapuram as a UDF candidate. During his term as the chairperson of the Kerala State Minorities Commission, Mr. Veerankutty courted controversy after serving a notice to Muslim Educational Society president P.A. Fazal Gafoor over his remarks regarding ‘niqab’. Mr. Veerankutty is survived by his wife, Konoth Fathima, sons Fayis, Fawaz, Fazil, and M.V. Faris.
Published – September 02, 2026 01:38 pm IST
