Kochi: Dr M.K. Sudarshan, son of former minister M.K. Krishnan, on Monday took oath as the first Dalit president of the Cochin Devaswom Board. Sudarshan, who is the Casualty Medical Officer at the Thrissur-based Daya General Hospital, was elected as a member of the Cochin Devaswom Board on October 19 and the government order appointing him as president was issued on November 25.

Late M.K. Krishnan, a renowned communist leader, was the minister for Forest and Harijan Welfare in the second EMS Namboothiripad Ministry (1967-69) and also served as the Devaswom Minister in the First E.K. Nayanar ministry. Mr Sudarshan, who took MBBS from the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College in 1989 and passed the Indian Civil Service in 1995, was also active in politics. He is currently the district vice president of PKS (Pattikajathi Kshema Samithi), Mannutti Area president of KSKTU (Kerala State Karshaka Tozhilali Union) and also the CPM Nadathara East local committee member.


His wife Dr B. Suma is the head of Cocoa Research Centre of the Kerala Agricultural University and has two children – MKS Krishn (Engineering Student) and MKS Nayana (Plus Two student). T.N. Arun Kumar and K.N. Unnikrishnan also were sworn in as members of the Cochin Devaswom Board.