K R Gowri amma, one of the longest-serving politicians in the state, passed away on Tuesday. The 102-year-old veteran had been hospitalized a few weeks back owing to age-related ailments. Her condition turned critical a week ago and she was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit.

Born in an aristocratic Ezhava family at Pattanakkad village in the Alappuzha district, the Communist legend had a successful eight-decade-long political life. From the first woman law graduate from the backward Hindu Ezhava community to piloting the historic Land Reforms Bill, Gowri Amma was one of the tallest leaders of Kerala politics.

Gowri Amma was elected to Kerala Assembly 11 times and was the longest-serving MLAs of the state after KM Mani, the late patriarch of the Kerala Congress(M). Until her last breath, she was the president of Janathipathya Samrakshana Samithi, a rebel outfit she had formed in 1994 after her ouster from CPI (M).