Veteran socialist leader M P Veerendra Kumar dies
(WorldNews India)

Rajya Sabha member and former Union minister M P Veerendra Kumar died in a hospital in Kozhikode Thursday night. He was 84. A veteran socialist leader and state president of Loktantrik Janata Dal, he was the managing director of Mathrubhumi, a leading newspaper group in Kerala, since 1979. As an author, orator, politician, intellectual, parliamentarian and media personality, he has left behind an indelible imprint on the social and political life of Kerala. Veerendra Kumar was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996 and 2004. He served as Union minister of state for finance in 1997 and held independent charge as minister of state for labour and parliamentary affairs. In Kerala politics, he was one...