Former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy who died on Tuesday at the age of 79 in Bengaluru, was a man of the people. He worked for the people, identified himself as one among them and he lived amidst them.

People could approach Oommen Chandy at any time at any place, while he was in government or in opposition, seeking his help to find solutions to their problems and grievances.

This approachability made Oommen Chandy a unique personality. Suppose a quality that we could not find in any other political leader of our times. He has the rare knack to identify the pulses of the masses. As a people’s representative and an administrator, he had the ability to comprehend the aspirations and desires of the people.

As Sasi Tharoor has stated, Oommen Chandy was a  “man of masses” who stood with the people through his long career, being accessible at all hours of the day and night and famously accepting petitions from constituents in his bedroom and even in his bathroom, there was more to his accomplishments than sheer public popularity.

He made an indelible mark in the political and administrative history of Kerala through his tireless works. Oommen Chandy was a rare personality who seldom take rests and that the epithet ‘one who gets tired when he rests’ was most suitable to him. He had the ability to connect with the people-to strike a chord with the masses.

As a political leader and administrator, Oommen Chandy was a champion of development. He is credited with some of Kerala’s biggest infrastructure projects such as the Kochi Metro, Vizhinjam international seaport, Kannur international airport, and the Kochi-Mangalore GAIL pipeline.

During his tenure as Labour Minister in Kerala, Chandy introduced unemployment wages for the first time in the country. While serving as the Home Minister in the second K Karunakaran Ministry in 1981, Chandy revised the uniform of the police.

Chandy’s reputation as a people’s leader emerged when he became Chief Minister in 2004 and chose the tagline ‘Athivegam Bahudooram’ (Fast and Far). As the chief minister, he was popular for his “janasamparka paripadi (mass outreach programme).Realising the importance of reaching out to the masses, Chandy, on his second term as CM during 2011-16, rolled out the Mass Contact Programme (Jana Samparkka Paripadi), under which he interacted with the public and resolved their problems on the spot.

The Mass Contact Programme, initiated by Chandy, was the first of its kind in the country. He received the United Nations Public Service Award for this (Mass Contact Programme) in 2013.

Oommen Chandy, is the name of a life that celebrated the large gathering of people.  For him,each day started like a demonstration, it went on  to midnight as a public meeting.

A unique personality of practical politics, Oommen Chandy came to the people by breaking all the governmental formalities. A life that can be seen as an open door and an open book, Oommen Chandy  can be marked as a man of compassion in the seat of power  through his care and consolation in the administration.

Continual victories and extraordinary social brilliance made Oommen Chandy an unparalleled leader in the Congress. Oommen Chandy, who is a cornerstone of Kerala’s development initiatives, was a typical public servant in Kerala politics.

Though Saritha Nair, prime accused in the solar scam case has levelled sexual exploitation charges against Oommen Chandy, the CBI  has given a clean chit  in the case  in December 2022. The CBI probe has found that there was no basis for the woman’s allegation against Chandy.

“My public life has always been an open book before the people. I have done nothing against my conscience. I have not tried to hide anything from people,” Chandy on 28 December 2022  said, reacting to the clean chit given to him by the CBI in Saritha’s allegation.