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Opposite the huge grey bust of Lord Shiva on the western entrance of Mararikulam Mahadeva Temple, the front yard of a two-storey house of a local Congress supporter is dotted with the party workers in white khadis. They are busy arranging chairs, setting up microphones, and laying a red carpet on the grainy sands of the coastal region to welcome the leader they fondly call “KC”.
The contest for the Alappuzha seat has turned into a prestige battle for the Congress with All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K C Venugopal’s return to the Lok Sabha poll fray after 2014 as the party looks to wrest the only seat it lost to the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in its landslide 19-1 victory in Kerala in the 2019 polls.
Venugopal, 61, has not lost any major election in his career. He won the Alappuzha Assembly seat thrice in a row — in 1996, 2001, and 2006 and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Alappuzha in 2009 and 2014. In 2019, he did not contest after the party elevated him to the post of the AICC general secretary (organisation).
In Venugopal’s absence, the CPI(M)’s A M Ariff gave the LDF a consolation win in the constituency in 2019. However, the margin of victory – 10,474 votes – was the lowest in the state. This time, besides Venugopal, Ariff faces a challenge from the BJP, which has fielded its firebrand leader Sobha Surendran from the seat.
The CPI(M), which is a part of the Opposition INDIA bloc at the national level, has slammed the Congress for fielding Venugopal, who has been a Rajya Sabha MP from the BJP-ruled Rajasthan, claiming his Lok Sabha victory could help the BJP bolster its numbers in the Upper House.
Venugopal’s supporters, however, are having none of it. “His Rajya Sabha tenure ends in two years. It is the numbers in Lok Sabha that matter. Alappuzha needed a strong candidate, and he is the right person, as he has proven several times,” says a Congress worker on a sweltering Friday afternoon in Mararikulam near Alappuzha town as the stage is set for Venugopal to address a gathering.
Venugopal arrives soon. Local Congress leaders welcome him with a shawl. He proceeds to take a seat in front of a hoarding listing his party’s five guarantees – the right to health law, a national minimum wage of Rs 400 per day, an employment guarantee Act for urban areas, life insurance and accident assurance for workers in the unorganised sector, and ending contract employment in core government facilities.
At the event, Venugopal does not miss any opportunity to slam the BJP-ruled Centre and the LDF government for their “indifference” to the workers’ woes.
As a woman narrates how she landed in trouble after she posted a meme on social media that mocked CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Venugopal rues the “rising intolerance of political strongmen” and goes on to promise a labour-friendly government if the Congress returns to power.
On the sidelines, Venugopal accuses Prime Minister Narendra Modi of creating a “false perception” that the BJP will return to power. “Sponsored surveys are being used to support certain claims, but we believe in the opinions of the people, not these surveys. The general mood of the people and the nation favours the Congress and the INDIA bloc,” he says.
Venugopal also slams the LDF for using Rahul Gandhi’s photographs in other states for campaigning while fielding a candidate against him in Wayanad. All 20 seats of Kerala vote on April 26 in the second phase of the polls.
Though Alappuzha is known for its Communist moorings and the Punnapra-Valayar revolt by the working class against the Dewan of Travancore in 1946, the Congress has won the Lok Sabha seat eight times, which is the combined tally of the undivided CPI (3) and the CPM (5).
V M Sudheeran was the first Congress candidate to win from the seat in 1977. He won it three more times in 1996, 1998 and 1999 before being undone by his namesake and Independent candidate V S Sudheeran in 2004. He lost by a little over 800 votes to K S Manoj of the CPI(M), while the Independent candidate secured 8,832 votes.
Venugopal’s supporters believe that Ariff’s 2019 victory was an “aberration” like the 2004 result. They point out that the CPI(M) leader got a lead in only two of the seven Assembly segments, Cherthala and Kayamkulam, while the then Congress nominee Shanimol Usman had overtaken Ariff in the other five segments —Aroor, Alappuzha, Ambalappuzha, Haripad and Kaunagappally.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) general secretary A A Shukkoor claims Venugopal would secure a bigger victory than his 2009 margin of over 57,000 votes. “He has developed Alappuzha town as well as the Lok Sabha constituency. He has made Alappuzha a tourist destination, made houseboats popular, and created several job opportunities. KC is accepted by all sections of society, irrespective of religion or caste,” he says.
Meanwhile, 59-year-old Ariff says he is not losing sleep over Venugopal’s return. “I had planned to contest against him last time, too. He went to Delhi, citing important responsibilities. We have seen how well he has handled those responsibilities. The Congress has lost several state elections, and each day, people from the Congress are joining the BJP,” he says.
The sitting MP believes public anger against the Centre over inflation, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and electoral bonds will favour the CPI(M). He also lists the doubling of the Kayamkulam-Ernakulam railway line and the development of the Alappuzha and Kayamkulam railway stations as his achievements.
However, what puts Ariff on a sticky wicket is the prevailing political climate following the twin “political murders” of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) leader K S Shan and BJP leader Ranjith Sreenivasan in 2021. While the convicts in the Ranjith murder case were awarded the death sentence after a speedy trial, the accused in the Shan murder case are out on bail. The SDPI, the political wing of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI), has been accusing the LDF government of allegedly going slow in the Shan case and betraying religious discrimination.
Though the UDF has openly rejected the SDPI’s support in Kerala ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the party can be a significant mobilising force in places such as Alappuzha and Ambalappuzha, where it is seen to hold sway over Muslim votes.
Making the contest a triangular affair is the BJP’s nominee, Sobha Surendran, the vice-president of the state party unit, who is credited with increasing its vote share in Attingal from 10% in 2014 to 25% in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
In 2019, the BJP fielded a candidate, K S Radhakrishnan, in Alappuzha for the first time after 2004, who polled 17% of the votes, a significant rise from the 6% it got 15 years before. The party claims “its natural ascendancy in the seat and Sobha’s popularity amongst women voters” would be decisive.
Sobha’s campaign is centred on her pitch: “Modi’s guarantee: A woman Union minister for Alappuzha”. Likening herself to Modi, the BJP candidate says she too comes from a humble background and can develop the constituency with the PM’s blessings.
“My biggest promise is that we will provide houses for all the homeless in Alappuzha within three years. I will provide a scholarship of Rs 25,000 for all girls who pass plus two for their higher education,” she says and promises to rejuvenate the coir industry and establish advanced harbours to address the woes of the local fishing community.
The Alappuzha electorate comprises around 72% Hindus, 14% Christians, and 13% Muslims. The Other Backward Classes (OBC) Ezhava community is the predominant Hindu group and Sobha’s Ezhava identity may help her wean some traditional Congress and CPI(M) voters.
