A teacher, student leader, editor and Kerala’s health minister for the past five years, KK Shailaja has always been defined as a practical, logical and grounded person. A staunch Communist, Shailaja was born on November 20, 1956, in Kerala’s Kannur district.

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She studied at the Madathil higher secondary school and later went on to become a teacher at the Sivapuram higher secondary school. She worked as a teacher for 23 years before she took voluntary retirement and became a full-time politician in 2004. She is one of the two women ministers in Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s cabinet. Though she represents the Kuthuparamba assembly constituency, this time she is contesting the elections from her hometown Kannur’s Mattannur.

Shailja Teacher, as she is famously called, grew up in a house that was steeped in politics. Her maternal grandmother MK Kalyani was her biggest influence.

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Joining student politics in school, Shailaja Teacher became a member of Students Federation of India and later, joined the Kerala Socialist Youth Federation. The foundation became Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) in 1980. She and her husband Bhaskaran, whom she married in 1981, worked together in the DYFI.

Working her way up for almost two decades, she joined the CPI(M). She also became the editor of Sthree Shabdam, a monthly publication and the official mouthpiece of the Kerala State Unit of AIDWA (All India Democratic Women’s Association).

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Two years after the Koothuparamabu firing, which claimed the lives of DYFI activists protesting against a minister, Shailaja Teacher contested for the first time from volatile Koothuparamba constituency in 1996. She won the election and took leave from school. However, in 2004, she opted for voluntary retirement.

She was elected to the state assembly from Peravoor constituency in 2006, which she lost to Congress leader Sunny Joseph in 2011. It was after her victory in 2016 from Koothuparamba that she was inducted as the Health Minister in the Pinarayi cabinet.

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Her work during the coronavirus pandemic got her a UN recognition. She also led the war against the outbreak of Nipah virus in 2018.

On April 6, people of Mattannur will decide Shailaja Teacher’s fate during the single phase polls for Kerala assembly. The counting of the votes will be held on May 2.