Cong leader Vayalar Ravi’s ‘innings’ all set to come to an end

Thiruvananthapuram, March 17 : With the biennial elections for three seats to the Rajya Sabha to take place on April 12 as announced by the Election Commission on Wednesday, it will be curtains for one of Kerala’s stalwart Congress’ politician, Vayalar Ravi, who will turn 84 in June.
Ravi will be one of the three Upper House members who would be retiring. Of the three seats, two are certain to be won by the present ruling CPI-M led Left and the third seat will go to the Congress-led UDF, which has already been given to Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) — the second biggest ally of the UDF. The IUML has renominated retiring member P.V. Abdul Wahab for another term.
This brings down the curtains on the long and eventful political career of Ravi, who is often said to have missed the post of Chief Minister as at that time the Congress politics was fully under the control of K. Karunakaran and A.K. Antony.
Incidentally, Ravi is the last state Congress president in Kerala who won through balloting which took place in the eighties, when he defeated Antony.
He won his first election in 1971 from the Chirayinkil Lok Sabha seat and had another term before returning to state politics and became the state Home Minister under K. Karunakaran from 1982 to 86.
Then he shifted base again to Delhi through the Rajya Sabha in 1994.