Senior Kerala Congress leader C F Thomas passes away

Kerala Congress (M) senior leader and MLA C F Thomas, 81, died on Sunday.

Thomas, who was also a former minister in the state, was under treatment for age-related ailments for quite some time.

A native of Changanaserry in Kottayam, Thomas was elected to the Kerala Assembly nine times from Changanaserry constituency in a row from 1980. He served as rural development and registration minister from 2001 to 2004.

Thomas, who was vice chairman of Kerala Congress (M), was a close confident of its founder leader K M Mani who died last year. In the ongoing power tussle in Kerala Congress (M) between Mani's son Jose K Mani and veteran leader P J Joseph, Thomas had earlier shown allegiance with Joseph.