Senior Congress leader Sooranad Rajasekharan no more

Senior Congress leader Sooranad Rajasekharan died at a private hospital here on Friday, party sources said.

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He was 75.

Rajasekharan, who was also a member of the political affairs committee of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), was battling cancer for some time, the sources said.

His funeral will be held in the evening at his home at Chathannoor in Kollam district, they said.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala expressed condolences on Rajasekharan's demise.

Satheesan, in his condolence message on Facebook, said Rajasekharan was a staunch Congressman who left his mark in various fields as an excellent organiser, collaborator, writer, journalist and researcher.

"He always had a smile on his face in any difficult situation or time of crisis. That smile has faded," the opposition leader said.

Chennithala said that with Rajasekharan's death, the party has lost a strong leader.

In a Facebook post, he said that Rajasekhkaran had been selected for the Ramachandran Memorial Award instituted by the Kollam Press Club for outstanding journalists and he was to receive it on April 23.

"I was invited to present the award, but Rajasekharan said goodbye without waiting to receive it," he said in a Facebook post conveying his condolences.

Chennithala also said that Rajasekharan had an extraordinary command over the Malayalam language and that is why he was appointed as the Managing Editor of the Veekshanam newspaper, a Congress-affiliated publication.