Velikkakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan (born 20 October 1923) is an Indian Communist politician who was the Chief Minister of Kerala from 2006 to 2011. At 82, he is the oldest person to have assumed the office. He served as the chairman of Administrative reforms in Kerala with state cabinet rank from 2016 to 2021. He was also a former 3 times Leader of the Opposition of Kerala state. Achuthanandan was a member of the CPI(M) Politburo from 1985 until July 2009, when he was reverted to the Central Committee of the party owing to his ideological dispositions. Achuthanandan initiated various actions as the Chief Minister, including the demolition drive in Munnar which claimed back acres of illegally occupied land, the demolition drive in Kochi M. G. Road which claimed back the long lost shoulder of the road, anti-piracy drive against film-piracy, his struggle against the Lottery mafia in the state. He was instrumental in convicting former minister R. Balakrishna Pillai on charges of corruption. Achuthanandan also took the lead in promoting free software in the state, and especially in adopting free software in the public education system of the state. Early life Born on 20 October 1923 to Sankaran and Accamma in Punnapra, Alappuzha, Travancore (part of present-day Kerala state, India), he lost his mother when he was four years old and subsequently lost his father aged 11. This forced him to quit his studies after finishing 7th standard in school and college. He started working by helping his elder brother in a village tailoring shop. Later he took up the job of meshing coir to make ropes at a coir factory. Achuthanandan was in the forefront of the land struggles in Kerala starting with the Alappuzha declaration in 1970 demanding implementation of the Land Reforms Act passed by the EMS Government in 1967. Later his activities as the leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly had evoked good public response. Political life He entered politics through trade union activities and joined State Congress in 1938. In 1940, he became a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI). During his 40 years as a politician he was imprisoned for five years and six months and was in hiding for four and half years. He was a state secretariat member of the CPI in 1957. He is the only living Keralite among the 32 members who left the CPI National