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MARKING THE end of an era in the Congress as well as politics in Kerala, Oommen Chandy, 79, passed away early on Tuesday morning after a long battle with cancer. In a reflection of the popularity of one of Kerala’s most beloved political leaders, condolence messages poured in from across party lines, including from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A key aspect of this popularity was Chandy’s accessibility, being that rare leader who did not build barriers around him and believed in being among the people. He also chose to remain in state politics despite close links with the Congress national leadership almost all through his career in politics.
The end came at a hospital in Bengaluru. Chandy’s body would be flown to Thiruvananthapuram, and kept in state at his residence, followed by the Secretariat and Congress office, for people to pay their respects. On Wednesday, the body will be taken to Kottayam by road, and the funeral will take place Thursday noon at Chandy’s native place Puthuppally.
The LDF government in Kerala has declared a two-day mourning, and gave a one-day public holiday for all offices on Tuesday.
A long-term crowd puller for the Congress, Chandy was the Kerala CM from 2004 to 2006 and 2011 to 2016, the Leader of the Opposition from 2006 to 2011, and served as a minister in governments led by K Karunakaran and A K Antony, handling the portfolios of Labour, Finance and Home.
An MLA from the Puthuppally Assembly seat for 53 years, winning it the first time back in 1970, Chandy’s active political career was intertwined closely with the story of the Congress in Kerala.
Born in October 1943 and a law graduate, he entered politics via the Kerala Students’ Union, the student wing of the Congress, and rose to serve as its president from 1967 to 1969. In 1970, he became the president of the State Youth Congress, and worked shoulder to shoulder with senior leaders Karunakaran and Antony, apart from Vayalar Ravi, to build a mass base for the party in Kerala.
Chandy’s rise was spectacular and by 1977, he was a Labour Minister under a Karunakaran-led Congress government. In the conflict-ridden Kerala Congress though, Chandy was seen as part of the Antony camp, labelled the A Group. On the other side was the I Group led by Karunakaran.
In 1994, when the ISRO spy case rocked Congress politics in Kerala, Chandy, as the convener of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), led parleys with allies, which culminated in unseating of then CM Karunakaran.
When Antony shifted his political ground to Delhi in 2004, Chandy emerged from his mentor’s shadow.
Given his cordial rapport with Christian community leaders, Chandy also helped Congress retain its support base among the community in Central Kerala. To his credit, that was never the cause of any strain in the Congress relations with its main ally, the Indian Union Muslim League, with Chandy at the helm.
In 2011, when Chandy assumed office for his second and last term as CM, the gap between the UDF and LDF was just two MLAs. Although his government was rocked by pulls and pressures from allies, and scandals ranging from bar bribery to solar, Chandy’s flexibility and pragmatic politics helped the Congress complete the term.
After Karunakaran, he was, in fact, the only Congress CM in Kerala to have a full five years in office.
During this second term as CM, Chandy launched a mass contact programme under which he would go to the public to hear their grievances and ensure relief. The programme was lauded as a unique democratic experiment, with the CM meeting thousands of people directly. In 2013, the programme received the United Nations Global Award for Public Service.
Crucial infrastructure projects of the state, such as the Kochi Metro, Vizhinjam international seaport, international airport in Kannur, Vallarpadam container transhipment project, Smart City IT project in Kochi, etc, were undertaken during Chandy’s term. The concept of a high-speed rail corridor, now being championed by the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left government, was also first mooted by the Chandy regime.
However, this term of Chandy was shadowed by the solar scam, after three of his close aides were arrested for links with the woman behind the cheating case. Chandy maintained that his “public life has always been an open book before the people. I have done nothing against my conscience”.
Last year, the CBI gave a clean chit to Chandy, finding the case against him fabricated.
During his term in power or after, Chandy seemed the happiest among the people. Legend had it that the CM was just a phone call away for any state resident, at any hour, and that he was equally accessible to party leaders as grassroot-level workers.
Every weekend, he would be found in his constituency Puthuppally, where people would drop in at his Karott Vallakalil house, and he would attend Sunday prayers at St George’s Orthodox Church.
Such was his love for his constituency that he named his house in Thiruvananthapuram ‘Puthuppally’. Chandy is survived by wife Mariyamma, daughters Achu and Mariyam, and son Chandy Oommen, a Youth Congress leader.
On Thursday, as Chandy’s final journey ends at the cemetery of the same village church, thousands are expected to turn up to bid farewell to the leader they affectionately called “Kunjunju”.
