thiruvananthapuram his auto rickshaw does not bear a fancy name and he would turn out as countless other rickshaw drivers whom we come across daily unless we know his friends for the newly elected agriculture minister v s sunilkumar and speaker designate p sreeramakrishnan sreekumar of poojappura was their trusted chauffeur whenever the legislators were in the city they would only travel in his rickshaw a member of poojapura local committee of cpi sreekumar is not just a trusted driver but a close friend of left wing leaders including v s sunil kumar sreeramakrishnan m b rajesh and s ajayakumar it was on monday night sunil kumar had his last ride with sreekumar before taking oath as the minister they went together to karalkada textiles at kaithamukku from where he bought two new dhotis then he took sunil kumar to the studios of a couple of news channels for discussions according to sreekumar his friendship with v s sunilkumar dates back to their aiyf days when they participated handinhand in numerous agitations in the state capital in the late 80s and early 90s as our friendship grew stronger he stopped hiring other rickshaws he said it was through sunil kumar sreekumar was introduced to the other leaders i am well aware that protocol will not allow us to ride together for the next five years but i have no qualms because i am sure our equation will remain unchanged he said on the eve of swearing in day sunilkumar talked about his friendship with sreekumar of course the main reason was that he was a hardcore party worker apart from that he was and still is an avid reader and can talk about any topic hence i was naturally attracted to him sunilkumar said my family too grew very fond of him and thus we became friends for life he said he added that his new responsibility as a minister would never be a hindrance to their relationship during my previous tenure as an mla i used to avail his service for the people from my constituency who come to the city to visit me here he would always be at service even if i called him at midnight in that sense he will continue to be on my service the minister signed off