Mr VD Satheesan has been elected as the new Opposition leader in the Kerala Legislative Assembly by the Congress High Command on Saturday.
The Congress High Command took a decision in favour of Mr Satheesan replacing former Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala following the failure of Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) which bagged only 41 seats out of the total 140 Assembly seats in the April 6 Assembly election in the state.
The High Command has decided to elect Mr Satheesan as the Opposition leader after examining a report received from Senior Congress leader Malikarjun Kharge.
Mr Satheesan, representing Paravur Assembly constituency, also serves as the Vice President of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC).
He completed his primary education from Panangad High School and graduation from Sacred Heart College, and post-graduation from Rajagiri College of Social Sciences.
The Congress leader then completed his LL.B from Trivandrum Kerala Law Academy Law College and LL.M from Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram. For a brief period he practiced law in the Kerala High Court.
Mr Satheesan was the Chairman of Mahatma Gandhi University Union from 1986-1987. He has also served as the Secretary for National Students’ Union.
He was elected to the Kerala Legislative Assembly in 2001 when he was practicing as an advocate in the Kerala High Court.
In the 2006 Kerala Assembly Election, he had won from Paravur Assembly Constituency defeating KM Dinakaran.
In the next Assembly election in 2011, he was again elected by defeating Pannyan Raveendran of CPI by 11,349 votes.
In 2021, he was elected to Kerala legislative assembly again from Paravur constituency by defeating MT. Nixon of CPI by a margin of 21,301 votes.
