EMS Namboothiripad, first Chief Minister Kerala

Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboothiripad, popularly known as EMS was the first Chief Minister of Kerala and an Indian Communist leader. He was a Marxist theoretician, voracious reader, socialist but a Gandhian in practice.

EMS was one of the founders of the Congress Socialist Party in Kerala. When he became acquainted with Marxism, EMS was greatly inspired by the Marxian ideology, and was one of the five members who formed the founding group of the Communist Party in Kerala in 1936.

Born on June 13, 1909 in an aristocratic and orthodox family in Palakkad district, he was a writer and his book on Kerala history is notable. This veteran leader passed away on March 19, 1998, at the age of 89.