Rajyasabha MP and MD of Mathrubhumi Newspaper MP Veerendra Kumar passed away just while ago. He was 83 years of age. He was admitted to a private hospital at Calicut due to old age illness, he died due to a heart attack at around 11.00 pm. M P Veerendra Kumar was born on 22 July 1936 to Marudevi Avva and Padmaprabha Gowder in a popular Jain family in Kalpetta. He did his schooling in Kalpetta and at Kozhikode, he did his master’s in philosophy from Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, Madras(Chennai).
An active politician, he was the treasurer and national committee member of the former Samyukta Socialist Party, state secretary of the Kerala Unit of the Socialist Party, one of the all India secretaries of the former Socialist Party, convener of the Opposition Co-ordination Committee in Kerala, vice president of the former Janata Party, and its president. He was arrested during the emergency. During 1987–91 he was elected member of the Kerala Legislative Assembly. Later 1996 he was elected to the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Parliament of India from Kozhikode constituency and functioned as Minister of state for Labour and later Finance.
M. P. Veerendra Kumar is the members of Rajyasabha from Kerala.He is also the chairman and managing director of Mathrubhumi newspaper.
He wrote several books including Samanwayathinte Vasantham, Buddhante Chiri, Gattum Kanacharadukalum, Atmavilekkoru Theerthayathra, Prathibhayute Verukal Thedi,Changampuzha: Vidhiyute Vettamrigam, Thirinjhunokkumbol, Lokavyapara Samkhadanayum Oorakkudukkukalum (Gattinu Seshamulla Oranweshanam), Roshathinte Vithukal, Adhinivesathinte Adiyozhukukal, Hymavathabhoovil and Ramantedhukkam. He won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award in 2010 for ‘Haimavatha bhoovi’