K Muraleedharan from Wayanad?

By Shankar Raj*

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K Sudhakaran met miffed party leader K Muraleedharan, son of the former Chief Minister, the late K Karunakaran, at his residence in Kozhikode amidst speculations that the latter may be considered as Congress party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Wayanad if Rahul Gandhi chooses to vacate the seat since he has also won from Raebareli.

Sudhakaran told newsmen that he had a long chat with Muraleedharan and described him as a highly respected and valuable leader of the party.

A highly upset Muraleedharan had told newsmen after he lost badly to the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Suresh Gopi in the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency that he would no longer contest any elections in the future and was contemplating quitting active politics. Muraleedharan had come a distant third behind the winning candidate Gopi, and his nearest rival VS Sunil Kumar of the Communist Party of India.

The Congress state leadership is expected to hold an evaluation meeting probably next week once the Kerala Assembly session starts on June 10, 2024.

Muraleedharan’s sister Padmaja Venugopal, who recently switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party, said that it was the same group of leaders in the district Congress committee who had undermined her during the assembly elections in 2021 and contributed to her brother’s defeat. “I had advised him not to come to Thrissur if he did not want to lose the election. Now, he has understood it clearly,” Padmaja said in Thrissur. 

Meanwhile, though it put up a spectacular fight and won 18 of the 20 LS seats, the Congress state leadership is facing the wrath of almost all its candidates, who alleged major organisational lapses and lack of support from District Congress Committees (DCCs). Several senior leaders expressed resentment over poor party machinery.

Muraleedharan was the first to raise concerns about the poor support from Thrissur District Congress Committee. “Of the 1,237 booth committees in Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency, 200 did not have booth agents. We somehow managed to arrange for people just to sign forms. That there was no organisational support was evident throughout the campaigning and on election day,” he told the media.

In Thiruvananthapuram too, Shashi Tharoor hardly received any party support. A handful of local youth leaders from the party’s booth and mandalam committees ran the show with Tharoor’s personal team. “In Thiruvananthapuram, there were no agents in at least 200 booth committees,” a source in Congress told a local daily.

Adoor Prakash had to source workers from elsewhere to help him in Attingal. Sources said lack of local support led to him slogging in the constituency, and managing a victory by a mere 684 votes.

KPCC president Sudhakaran, who contested and won from Kannur, was also not immune to organisational apathy in assembly constituencies and had to bring people from outside.

The situation was no different in Alappuzha, where the party had no workers in 54 panchayats in a constituency where KC Venugopal, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (organisation), was in the running.

What did not miss the eye was the absence of Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan at the party headquarters when counting was in progress. As per an AICC directive, all senior leaders should have been at the party headquarters. However, a source close to Satheesan said the leader chose to stay at his official residence with United Democratic Front leaders close to him.

*Shankar Raj is a former editor of The New Indian Express, Karnataka and Kerala, and writes regularly on current affairs.