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R. Nallakannu (1925–2026) Demise
February 28 , 2026
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- R. Nallakannu, senior leader of the Communist Party of India (CPI), passed away on 25 February 2026 in Chennai at the age of 101 and was accorded State honours.
- R. Nallakannu was a leader of the CPI and served as the Tamil Nadu State Secretary for three terms from 1992.
- He was born in 1925 in Srivaikundam, Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu, and joined the Indian freedom movement as a school student.
- In 1949, he was arrested in the Nellai Conspiracy Case, which alleged that Communist leaders planned to overthrow the Government led by Jawaharlal Nehru.
- He was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Nellai Conspiracy Case along with K. Balathandayutham, P. Manikkam, I. Mayandibharathi, and many others.
- He was released from prison in 1956.
- He lived underground when the Communist Party was banned by the British government and later by the Congress government led by Jawaharlal Nehru.
- In 1964, when the Communist movement in India split after the Indo-China War, he chose to remain with the CPI.
- In 1999, he contested the Lok Sabha election from Coimbatore as a CPI candidate and lost to C. P. Radhakrishnan of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
- He led a campaign against illegal sand mining in the Thamirabarani river basin and, in 2010, filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Madras High Court, where he personally argued the case and obtained a stay order against sand mining.
- On 15 August 2022, he received the ‘Thagaisal Thamizhar’ award from the Government of Tamil Nadu, presented by M. K. Stalin, and he donated ₹10 lakh along with ₹5,000 of his own money to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund.
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