M.P. Veerendra Kumar, Rajya Sabha MP, and Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) leader, passed away here after a cardiac arrest on 28 May 2020 night.

The 83-year-old former Union Minister of State for Finance was also the Managing Director of the Mathrubhumi group of publications. He had been admitted to a private hospital here where he breathed his last.

Mr. Veerendra Kumar was born at Kalpetta, now in Wayanad district, to socialist leader and planter MK Padmaprabha Goudar and Marudevi Avva. He had his early education at Kalpetta and Kozhikde before getting a Masters degree in Philosophy from Vivekananda College, Madras, and an MBA from Cincinnati University, Ohio, U.S.A.

He had got a membership of the then Socialist Party from Jayprakash Narayan and had been an all-India treasurer of the Samyukta Socialist Party between 1968 and 1970. Later, he became part of the Janata Party and the Janata Dal.

Mr. Veerendra Kumar became a director of the Mathrubhumi in the late 70s and took charge of its management by the mid 80s. He was associated with the Indian Newspaper Society as well as the Press Trust of India.