Explained: This article explains the political background, key decisions, and possible outcomes related to Explained : In poll-bound Kerala, Congress’ candidate list has Chennithala loyalists smarting and Its Impact and why it matters right now.
Thiruvananthapuram: Late evening on 19 March, when the second list of Congress candidates was out after days of deliberations, one name was conspicuously missing.
The ‘most unkindest cut of all’ was reserved for veteran Joseph Vazhakkan, Ramesh Chennithala’s closest ally and confidant. Vazhakkan is a member of the Congress’ Political Affairs Committee (PAC), the state equivalent to the Congress Working Committee (CWC), in Kerala.
Vazhakkan’s name was in the reckoning as a ministerial candidate if the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) came back to power after the assembly elections.
Ramesh Chennithala reportedly washed his hands off, since he isn’t part of the Central Election Committee (CEC), unlike in 2021, even as Vazhakkan told ThePrint that the former was also party to the decision. “There should be comradeship within the party. (Not giving me a ticket after) having asked me to concentrate in a particular constituency despite volunteering to contest any seat in central Travancore, it was unfair to me,” he said.
The former Muvattupuzha legislator missed out as part of the final discussion centred on six constituencies, due to the pulls and pressures of community equations.
Senior Congress leaders from Kottayam confirmed that Vazhakkan’s name was included in the list from Ettumanoor constituency, only to be dropped since Kottayam District Committee (DCC) president Nattakom Suresh was deemed a better choice to take on fellow-Ezhava and minister V.N. Vasavan.
ThePrint reached Ramesh Chennithala via call for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
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Chennithala nominees lose out
Vazhakkan aside, many Chennithala nominees lost out in ticket distribution this time around. They include sitting legislator Eldhose Kunnappally in Perumbavoor, veterans A.A. Shukoor and Babu Prasad in Alappuzha, N. Subramanian in Kozhikode, T.V. Chandramohan in Thrissur, among others.
Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader V. D. Satheesan’s dislike for Eldhose Kunnappally is well-known. However, Kunnappally lamented how he wasn’t informed about being dropped in advance, leading to humiliation, after spending three months going door-to-door in the constituency in his re-election bid.
Chennithala not being part of the CEC meeting was a major factor in him losing out to K.C. Venugopal on ticket distribution.
In any case, many who lost out told ThePrint, Chennithala is not known to back his nominees to the hilt.
Shukoor recalled the 2016 instance when chief minister Oommen Chandy did not buckle under pressure from Rahul Gandhi to drop five sitting MLAs: K.C. Joseph, K. Babu, Benny Behanan, Dominic Presentation and Adoor Prakash.
Chandy eventually had his way, but Shukoor pointed out how Chandy backed even Chennithala loyalist Adoor Prakash just the way he argued for others.
Pecuniary loss
Vazhakkan’s damage wasn’t limited to his reputation. He said he shelled out Rs 25 lakh for printing posters and flex boards to be put up across the constituency—even if he had been careful enough to not print the name of the constituency, for fear of getting shunted out to another seat at the last minute.
Another potential candidate who went to the extent of printing posters was Deepthi Mary Varghese, who is considered close to Congress general secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal. The Kochi seat was a bone of contention between Varghese and Ernakulam DCC president Mohammed Shiyas, a VD Satheesan loyalist.
Posters with the tagline “Sarvam Deeptham” made her wallet lighter by Rs 10 lakh, as Satheesan managed to finalise the seat for his aide at the CEC.
Vazhakkan’s disappointment
Joseph Vazhakkan’s disappointment is compounded by the fact that he missed out on a winnable seat even in 2021, having hoped to retain the Muvattupuzha that he had lost to the Left in 2016. Instead Chennithala favoured giving the seat to Mathew Kuzhalnadan based on surveys, even if Vazhakkan had maintained an office in the constituency until the election.
That eventually resulted in Vazhakkan’s second contest from Kanjirappally, where he had little chance. The circumstances that led to his being denied Muvattupuzha ticket in 2021 caused Vazhakkan to introspect and resulted in his stepping away from his 17-year stint as a Congress spokesperson.
But not many are shedding a tear for Vazhakkan. They say what goes arounds comes around. Three-time Congress MLA George J. Mathew recalls how then CM Oommen Chandy and Chennithala took away his seat of Kanjirappally in 2006.
“I was recuperating from a surgery ahead of the election and I had volunteered to step away if necessary. But Chandy and Chennithala insisted that I contest, but when the list was finally out, I found my name missing and Vazhakkan’s name there,” the octogenarian told ThePrint.
‘Poetic justice’
Vazhakkan could not win the Kanjirappally seat in 2006 and he moved to Muvattupuzha in 2011, much to the chagrin of Johny Nellore, who represented the constituency thrice.
Nellore cited the Biblical “as you sow, so you reap” to explain Vazhakkan’s predicament. “That’s how life is, and that’s how politics is”, he stated with schadenfreude evident in his laugh.
“Back in 2011, I was preparing to contest from Muvattupuzha when Vazhakkan came from Kottayam district to deprive me of my constituency where I first contested in 1980. My humiliation did not end there. I was shunted out to Angamaly in 2011.
“In 2016, after shifting my home to the constituency and spending a fortune in the process, even that seat was taken away from me without any notice,” Nellore said.
Vazhakkan is forthright about Nellore’s plight in 2016.
“Kerala Congress (J) did not deserve the seat as the Congress was in a better position to win it. The media took Rahul Gandhi’s name for delivering the seat to Roji M John, but it was Chennithala’s own doing,” he told ThePrint.
Vazhakkan pointed out how the decision was vindicated as Roji M John has managed to convert Angamaly into a Congress fortress by winning successive elections, and looks set to win many more elections.
Changing political loyalties
As politics go, John abandoned Chennithala at the first opportunity and has become a part of Satheesan’s inner circle.
Both Mathew Kuzhalnadan and Roji M John, who got Congress tickets in 2016 and 2021 with the backing of Chennithala, backed V.D. Satheesan as Leader of Opposition (LoP) after the Congress debacle in 2021, catching the veteran by surprise.
A veteran Congress leader who spoke to ThePrint on the condition of anonymity stated, “Chennithala is known to promise the same ticket to multiple aspirants to keep his loyalists happy. At some point it was set to backfire. And Chennithala being deprived of LoP status itself was nothing short of ‘political Karma’.”
Vazhakkan, long known as ‘group manager’ of Chennithala’s faction, has been trying to shed that image after the 2021 setback. He is pinning hopes on a Rajya Sabha seat that has been reportedly promised to him, but given the factional nature of the Kerala unit, that remains in the realm of speculation.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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