12-foot tall statue of Lenin unveiled in TN's Tirunelveli

Months after two of his statues were pulled down in Tripura, a 12-foot-tall statue of Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin was Tuesday unveiled at the CPI(M) district office premises here commemorating his 95th death anniversary.

CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury unveiled the fibreglass statue placed on a seven-foot-tall pedestal amid slogans praising the party and Russian revolution.

Renowned artist and former principal of Government Fine Arts College in Chennai G Chandrasekaran designed and fabricated the statue, party polit bureau member G Ramakrishnan told PTI.

"After the incidents in Tripura, we were deeply disturbed. The Communist party cannot be destroyed by pulling down statues," Ramakrishnan said.

The statue has been installed at a cost of around Rs four lakh mobilised by party workers.

Last year in March, two statues of Lenin were brought down in South Tripura just days after the Left was defeated in the Assembly polls by the BJP and its ally IPFT, which together won a two-third majority in the House in a state where the CPI(M) was in power for 25 years.