It is free for all in Congress in Kerala following its landslide win in the recent Lok Sabha election. The party won 14 out of the 16 seats it contested while its allies including Muslim League won the remaining four seats. The two seats where the party lost were Thrissur (K Muraleedharan) and Alathoor (Remya Haridas). The defeat of Haridas was in expected lines as her performance was lacklustre. But Muraleedharan, son of former chief minister late K Karunakaran getting battered at Thrissur has sent shock waves across the party.
Muraleedharan was shifted to Thrissur from Vadakara (where he had defeated Marxist strongman P Jayarajan in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll) to neutralize the setback suffered by the Congress as his sister Padmaja Venugopal had joined the BJP days before the announcement of the poll schedule. What led to Muraleedharan’s shock defeat was the retaliation by the sitting member from Thrissur T N Prathapan who got furious over the party action of denying the ticket to him despite the Congress leadership giving him the green flag to launch the campaign work.
Prathapan who reportedly broke down on hearing the news just vanished from the battlefront and played havoc with Muraleedharan’s poll prospects.
Muraleedharan literally exploded with anger on hearing about his defeat and remained incommunicado till Saturday. Though KPCC president K Sudhakaran tried to pacify him, Muraleedharan has not moved an inch from his stance. The reactions by leaders like Ramesh Chennithala, K C Venugopal, V D Sathishan and Sasi Tharoor were like adding salt to the wounds. All these leaders wanted Muraleedharan to be out of their way by 2025 assembly election as the latter is a string contender for the chief minister’s gaddi.
Though he is not a parliamentarian with the skills of a speaker and law maker, Muraleedharan was popular in some pockets in the State because of his uncompromising stance against the BJP. Sources close to K Sudhakaran told The Pioneer that Muraleedharan was upset because of the back stabbing by leaders like Prathapan.
“I am keeping away from public life for the time being and am not ready to face election immediately, ” Muraleedharan told reporters on Saturday. He also asked the media and party cadre not to vitiate the atmosphere by publishing hearsay. Sudhakaran said on Friday after his one-to-one meeting with Muraleedharan that the party was willing to go to any extent to make him happy. “Muraleedharan is a precious leader of the Congress and we will do anything to make him remain in the party,” said Sudhakaran.
The KPCC is likely to nominate Muraleedharan as the party candidate from Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in the by poll if Rahul Gandhi decides to vacate the seat and retain Raebareli in UP. Meanwhile the Thrissur District Congress Committee office saw two sections of leaders owing allegiance to Muraleedharan and Prathapan fighting it out in the open necessitating police intervention.
