Having entered active politics at a young age, he had joined Students Congress while at
Annamalai University, then joined Indian Socialist Party (ISP) and subsequently the Communist Party in 1952. A strong advocate of
co-operative movement, he had a long association with the co-operative sector, especially in
Kollam district. He was the President of Kollam District Co-operative Bank for more than 29 years and had the rare opportunity of getting elected as the Chairman of All India State Co-operative Bank Federation and the vice-president of National Co-operative Union and member of the Central Committee of the International Co-operative Alliance and member of Agriculture Credit Board of RBI.
Legislative career He was elected to
Kerala Legislative Assembly six times from
Kollam district as
Communist Party of India candidate and served 19 years as an MLA. He was minister in various portfolios and has served various legislative committees. In 1980, Shri. Chandrasekharan Nair was appointed Chairman of the Ad hoc Committee for the formation of Subject Committees, which recommended the formation of ten Subject Committees for the detailed scrutiny of budget, an innovative concept in the Legislative history of India. The Committee formed under his Chairmanship in 1999 had also given recommendations to streamline the functioning of the Subject Committees, after an in-depth analysis of their working.
The stint as legislator with highlights Works and accolades • The concept of "
Maveli Stores" aiming at making available essential commodities at fair price to poorer sections of the society, also emerged at his initiative. • He took the initiative to start a government engineering college in Karunagappalli. As a result,
College of Engineering Karunagappally commonly known as CEK, started functioning during the year 1999 under
Institute of human resources development for electronics IHRDE (Now IHRD). • He was also the recipient of many honors such as ‘Sadanandan Award’ for best Co-operator and R. Sankara Narayanan Thampi award for best Parliamentarian. • He also won
Kerala Sahitya Akademi award for the book
Hindu Matham Hinduthwam. • The famous tag line
God's Own Country for
Tourism in Kerala was launched and
Thenmala Eco Tourism Project was started during his stint as Tourism minister. == See also ==