Veteran Kerala politician KM Mani died at a hospital in Cochin on Tuesday, April 9. He was aged 86. Mani was undergoing treatment for respiratory illness for the past few days and it was reported that his condition had worsened. His condition improved a bit on Tuesday morning, but by 3 pm, his blood pressure started falling drastically.
During the time of death, all his family members, including son Jose K Mani, were there at the hospital. Jose K Mani is expected to address the media soon.
KM Mani, who was a Kerala Congress (M) leader, held various records, including the longest-serving member of the Kerala Assembly. As the finance minister, Mani had presented the maximum number of budgets (13) in the Kerala Legislative Assembly.
Interestingly, KM Mani had won the Legislative Assembly elections from Palai constituency for 13 consecutive terms, and that clearly indicated his bonding with the people in the constituency. However, in 2015, he faced a major setback due to his alleged involvement in the Kerala Bar license scam and bribery case.
As the then opposition party, CPI(M), conducted statewide protests, KM Mani was forced to resign from the post of finance minister on November 10, 2015.
Oommen Chandy, the former Kerala CM, mourned the death and revealed that it is a real loss to Kerala politics. He also added that Mani had spent more than six decades for the people of Palai.
