Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 8 (IANS): Veteran Communist leader and journalist Berlin Kunjanandan Nair breathed his last at his home in Kannur on Monday evening, said party sources.

Nair was 97 and was suffering from age-related issues for a while.

In 1943, Nair took part in the first ever Congress of the Communist party that was held in then Bombay.

Berlin was added to his name after he was asked by the party to reach Germany in 1961 after the German Democratic Republic government of East Germany built the Berlin Wall to stop the exodus of people from the region to divided West Germany.

And after long years in Germany, where he worked as a journalist, Nair returned to Kerala and shot into further prominence when he sided with V.S. Achuthanandan, which irked Pinarayi Vijayan who was the longest serving state party secretary here from 1998 to 2015.

There were times when the tiff between Achuthanandan and Vijayan reached a high, and Nair took a strong stand against Vijayan.

However, a few years back after Vijayan's stock rose high both in the party and in the government, Nair tried to build bridges with hi, by even applauding him for the way he has been leading the Kerala government.