Congress activist dies during campaign in Thrissur

THRISSUR: A Congress local activist at Kolazhi on the outskirts of Thrissur city fainted to death on Wednesday morning while campaigning for the party candidate Padmaja Venugopal. The party sources identified the deceased as Vijayan Kunnanath.
He was 55, and is survived by his wife and a son. According to party sources, Vijayan, who was the party mandalam secretary, died while taking part in the Padayathra organised as part of the poll campaign from Thirur temple area.They said Vijayan was a cardiac patient as well as a diabetic.
``The padayathra started at about 8 and he would have walked about 45 minutes. Suddenly, he fainted, and even though he was rushed to the nearby hospital, he was declared dead on admission. The post-mortem will be performed at the Thrissur Medical College Hospital later today,’’ the Congress leader and Kolazhi Panchayat president A J Shaju said.
The party sources said even though the city and surrounding areas are experiencing high temperature in the past couple of days, the doctors who attended Vijayan did not suspect that he had died of sunstroke. ``He died in the morning hours, before the temperature had risen," Shaju pointed out.