A. K. Saseendran (born 29 January 1946) is an Indian politician who has served as the Minister for Forests and Wildlife Protection of Kerala since 2021. He previously served as the Minister for Transport of Kerala from 2018 to 2021 and from 2016 to 2017. He is a Member of the Kerala Legislative Assembly representing Elathur since

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. He previously represented

Peringalam Peringalam is a small town in Talassery taluk of Kannur district in the Indian state of Kerala. It is part of Panoor municipality. Peringalam assembly constituency was part of Vatakara (Lok Sabha constituency) Vatakara Lok Sabha constitue ...

from 1980 to 1982,

Edakkad Edakkad is village in kannur city in Kannur District of Kerala state, in India. History Edakkad grama panchayat of Kannur in ancient times was referred to as Madhya-adavi (in Sanskrit'' Madhya'' means middle and ''Adavi'' means forest). Simil ...

from 1982 to 1987 and

Balussery Balussery is a town located about 25 km northeast of Kozhikode city, situated on State Highway 34. It is one of the 12 block Panchayats in the Kozhikode district and serves as the northeastern entry point to Kozhikode city. Geography ...

from 2006 to 2011 in the

Kerala Legislative Assembly The Kerala Legislative Assembly, popularly known as the Kerala Niyamasabha, is the State Assembly of Kerala, one of the 30 states in India. The Assembly is formed by 140 elected representatives. Each elected member represents one of the 140 ...

. He is a member of the

Nationalist Congress Party The Nationalist Congress Party is one of the List of political parties in India#State parties, state parties in India and is one of the major political parties in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Maharashtra with a recognised state party statu ...

Personal life

Saseendran was born in

Kannur Kannur (), formerly known in English as Cannanore, is a city and Municipal corporation (India), municipal corporation in the state of Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kannur district and situated north of the maj ...

on 29 January 1946 to K. Kunhambu and M. K. Janaki. He is married to Anitha Krishnan N T, and has one son, Varun. He resides at Mele Chovva, Kannur.

Political life

One among the senior leaders in Kerala politics. A native of Elayavoor in Kannur, Saseendran started his political career through KSU in 1962. After holding various party posts, he joined Congress (S) in 1978. Later he joined NCP and currently he is a member of national working committee since 2006. He was elected to the Assembly in 1980 from Peringalam, 1982 from Edakkad, 2006 from Balussery and three times consecutively from Elathur during 2011,2016 and 2021 elections.

Positions held

* President, District Committee, Kerala Students Union Kozhikode (1963–66) * General Secretary, Kerala Students Union (1967–69) * General Secretary (1969–77) * Vice President (1969–78) and President (1978-80) * Kerala Pradesh Youth Congress Committee (1978–80) * Member, Coffee Board (1978–80) * ISCUS (1977–81) * Governing Board of Kerala Saksharata Samiti (1987-91 & 1992-97) * Kerala State Housing Board (1997-2001) * Vice-President, Jawaharlal Nehru Public Library and Research Centre, Kannur * General Secretary, Congress (U) & Indian Congress Socialist (Congress(S)) * Member, Advisory Committee, Food Corporation of India * State General Secretary, State Vice President, National Committee Member, Working Committee Member and Parliamentary Party leader of Nationalist Congress Party (N.C.P.) * Kerala Legislative Assembly; Minister for Transport (from 25-5-2016 to 27-3-2017 and 01-2-2018 to 03-05-2021) * Kerala Legislative Assembly; Minister for Forests, Wild Life Protection (from 20-5-2021)

Controversy

On 26 March 2017, Saseendran resigned as minister after a newly launched Malayalam television channel, Mangalam TV, aired a telephonic audio clip that portrayed him speaking in a sexually explicit way to someone whom the channel claimed was a

housewife A housewife (also known as a homemaker or a stay-at-home mother/mom/mum) is a woman whose role is running or managing her family's home—housekeeping, which may include Parenting, caring for her children; cleaning and maintaining the home; Sew ...

. After initially denying allegations of conspiring against Saseendran, Mangalam TV's

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

eventually apologised and admitted that it was a

sting operation In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a rol ...

done by a female journalist employed by the channel. On 4 April, the CEO and four media people of Mangalam TV were arrested by the

Kerala Police The Kerala Police is the law enforcement agency for the Indian state of Kerala. Kerala Police has its headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital. The motto of the force is "Mridhu Bhave Dhrida Kruthye" which means "Soft in Temperament, ...

for airing an "

obscene An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin , , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral ...

conversation" and for criminal conspiracy. Later, Saseendran was acquitted in the case after the complainant, who had earlier alleged

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment based on the sex or gender of a victim. It can involve offensive sexist or sexual behavior, verbal or physical actions, up to bribery, coercion, and assault. Harassment may be explicit or implicit, wit ...

, turned

hostile Hostility is seen as a form of emotionally charged aggressive behavior. In everyday speech, it is more commonly used as a synonym for anger and aggression. It appears in several psychological theories. For instance it is a facet of neuroticism ...

in court; he returned to his previous position as minister. Saseendran was the second Minister to resign from the first Pinarayi Vijayan ministry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saseendran, A. K. Kerala MLAs 2011–2016 1946 births Nationalist Congress Party politicians from Kerala Living people Politicians from Kozhikode Politicians from Kannur Indian National Congress (U) politicians Indian National Congress politicians from Kerala Kerala MLAs 2016–2021 Kerala MLAs 2021–2026 Indian Congress (Socialist) politicians Nationalist Congress Party (SP) politicians