90-Plus And Still Going Strong. The Tale of 2 Chief Ministerial Hopefuls

Thiruvananthapuram & Chennai: Age is no bar for a political career in India. Two politicians in Kerala and its neighbouring Tamil Nadu are proving it all over again. Both are over 90. Both are chief ministerial candidates for their respective parties, which are out of power. Both hope to win.

The political acumen of 93-year-old M Karunanidhi, the Chanakya of Tamil Nadu politics, finds its match in the mass appeal of VS Achuthanandan, former chief minister and the face of the Left-led LDF campaign in Kerala.

A decade ago, the CPM had denied VS -- as he is popularly known - an Assembly seat, citing age. But such was the uproar among the cadre, the party was forced to change its stand.  That time, the LDF had won 99 of the state's 140 seats and Mr Achuthanandan had become the Chief Minister.

"I will serve the people for next 5 years," said VS, who is now 92.

Mr Achuthanandan has had his share of scrapes with the party. In 2009, he was ousted from the politburo, the highest decision-making body of the CPM. Last year, his unwillingness to toe the party line cost him his seat in the CPM state committee.

But with an election to contest, the party has carefully kept to the background. A mass leader who only lost one of the six elections contested,  VS is expected to steer the LDF to victory.  

VS himself waves aside the past, calling it a "rumour". "There are no differences in my party at all... rumours of differences have to be thrown aside at this time," he said.

Nearly 800 km away, in Chennai, Mr Karunanidhi is facing an electoral battle which could be one of his toughest.  But the six-time chief minister is not daunted despite his inability to cobble together an alliance.

Part of the reason is his nearly 80-year association with politics - Mr Karunadhi had joined up at the tender age of 14, with his participation in the anti-Hindi agitations. He circulated a handwritten newspaper and formed a student organisation that became the vanguard of the Dravidian movement.

Mentored by rationalist leader Periyar and Anna Durai, Mr Karunanidhi has never lost an election.
And while this election will be his 13th, his followers say he would have the last laugh.

Showing full faith in Kalaignar, , Tamilan Prasanna, the party's spokesperson, said, "Our leader's brain is like Einstein's. He's the dictionary of Machiavelli, He's like the Zorro's sword."