Congress MLA Ramesh Chennithala inaugurated the annual Mannam Jayanthi celebrations at the Nair Service Society (NSS) headquarters in Perunna on 2 January. It marked the end of 12-year-old acrimony between the former Kerala Home Minister and NSS general secretary Sukumaran Nair.
There is a little bit of history to it.
Flashback to 27 January 2013. At an event held at the Putharikandam Maidan, Sukumaran Nair publicly demanded that Ramesh Chennithala be inducted into the Oommen Chandy government in a “key position”. Nair went on to reveal that an agreement of this nature was reached between the NSS and the national leadership of the Congress, brokered by Vilasrao Deshmukh on 6 September 2010, in exchange for the organisation’s blanket support.
A couple of days later, Chennithala expressed his anguish at being branded as a Nair, “questioning his secular credentials”. He also said that community outfits such as the NSS should not cross their limits, disowning the general secretary’s comments. Chennithala went on to secure the ‘key position’ as Home Minister on 1 January 2014, but his relationship with the NSS was frayed beyond repair.
Chennithala also carried the cross of being branded a ‘Nair’ ever since. This overshadowed his impressive career in the Congress until then, being president of the Kerala Students Union (KSU), National Students Union of India (NSUI), Indian Youth Congress (IYC), Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), Congress Working Committee (CWC) member, and so on. He also became the youngest minister at the age of 28 in 1985.
While Chennithala went on to become the Leader of Opposition (LOP) in Kerala in 2016, he remained at loggerheads with Sukumaran Nair, and this stand-off continued till the fag end of 2024.
Return of the prodigal son
Chennithala’s return to the NSS headquarters last week was no less dramatic. In what was reminiscent of the parable of the prodigal son in the Bible, Chennithala received a warm welcome, and the NSS general secretary heaped him with praise – which was duly reciprocated. A visibly emotional Chennithala went on to recount his strong ties with the community outfit, right from his days as a college student at the NSS Hindu College.
“I myself took the initiative to end the misunderstanding between us,” Chennithala told me, before adding, “There was a personal meeting among us where we agreed to let bygones be bygones, before the invitation to the Mannam Jayanthi came forth,”
There is a huge political import to this development and the renewed camaraderie between Nair and Chennithala. VD Satheesan had become stronger after leading the Kerala Congress to a massive win in the Palakkad by-election, and had seemingly eclipsed others in the race to become the face of the party in the assembly elections due early next year.
It is another matter that Satheesan’s growing clout within the Congress, too, might have influenced this development in some way or the other. Sukumaran Nair had taken a stern position against Satheesan, after the latter aired his position on the NSS meddling in politics soon after he took over as LOP from Chennithala in 2021.
Rebranding of Chennithala’s Nair identity
However, regardless of the fortunes of his immediate rivals in the Congress, the political situation in Kerala has also seemingly turned in Chennithala’s favour to go through a ‘rebranding’. It is important to recall here that ever since Sukumaran Nair made his preference for Chennithala known in 2013, the ‘Nair tag’ has stayed with him like an albatross around his neck.
Moreover, the Left had by then used Chennithala’s association with the ‘Savarna’ Nair outfit to make ‘soft-Hindutva’ allegations against him. In fact, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI-M] panelists would often dub Chennithala as “Sanghithala” (which translated to head of the Sanghis) ad nauseam on news channels to try and sow doubts.
And that may have worked to the CPI-M’s advantage in the Muslim-dominated Malabar in 2016 in 2021. The propaganda campaign unleashed by the CPI-M had created doubts even among the Congress-ally Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) constituents about Chennithala’s viability as the leader of the United Democratic Front (UDF) back then.
However, post the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)’s rise to prominence in Kerala, and the shift of a large section of Hindus to the saffron party’s fold, Chennithala’s ‘Nair identity’ is no longer seen as a liability. In fact, he is now seen as a Congress leader who can help the Congress retain its Hindu votes, and not just the Nair votes.
And the NSS, too, is not reviled as much as it was earlier among the general public for its political utterances, as it has studiously kept the BJP at an arms’ distance, thereby doing its part in maintaining an ‘equilibrium’ of sorts in Kerala polity.
Also read: CPI-M is damaging Kerala with its petty politics. God’s own country to ‘mini-Pakistan’
Chennithala’s renewed appeal
It was noted that even Vellappally Natesan of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), the Ezhava-caste outfit, who has often backed the CPI-M, offered his veiled support to Chennithala, “as the better option among the lot”. Of course, Natesan has often expressed his displeasure with Satheesan, and he had also fallen out with KC Venugopal, another CM contender.
Congress MLA Roji M John, known to be a confidant of Satheesan, admitted to me that “Congress needs another face that can carry the aspirations of the Hindu community, along with Satheesan.”
Even the IUML has now come to recognise Chennithala’s utility as someone who can cater to the Hindu vote bank from the UDF ranks. No wonder Chennithala received an invite to be the chief guest at the IUML-controlled Jamia Nooriya event on 4 January, after the NSS event. And that is to be followed by another event at the Jamia Islamia, controlled by the Samastha Kerala Jemiyyathul Ulema’s EK faction, at Manjeri, on 11 January.
Tharoor’s loss of favour
There is another angle being read into Chennithala’s name gaining traction lately. For instance, Shashi Tharoor was the toast of these political and community outfits just a couple of years ago, when his name began to do the rounds as a CM contender.
Back then Tharoor was similarly invited to inaugurate the Mannam Jayanthi celebrations, and he followed that up by meeting with community leaders and attending events across the state. Tharoor was later invited to be the chief guest of the IUML-organised Palestine solidarity event in Kozhikode, where his critical comments on Hamas blew up, with his stand was dubbed as pro-Israel by sections of the Kerala media and Left commentators.
That seemingly put paid to Tharoor’s chances of emerging as a unanimous choice of all the political and community outfits backing the Congress. It was in the aftermath of Tharoor’s loss of appeal in Malabar, following his stance on Hamas and the CPI-M doubling down on the issue during the Lok Sabha polls, that Satheesan began gaining traction as the face of the opposition.
Munambam—a divisive issue
On his part, Satheesan was aggressively attending events of different Christian church denominations, and courting the Muslim community leaders in equal measure. However, the Munambam issue has seemingly tripped up Satheesan.
It is believed that sections of the Muslim community in Malabar were left antagonised by Satheesan’s bold position that Munambam isn’t Waqf land. Although Satheesan declared that he took a position on the Munambam issue after taking the IUML into confidence, the hardliners in the party such as KM Shaji and ET Mohammed Basheer played spoilsport and took the initiative away from the UDF.
The IUML was quick to dismiss speculations about Satheesan’s fall from grace, and even the Samastha representatives did not give credence to it when I made specific inquiries about this. However, such a theory has been gaining ground lately, about Satheesan’s appeal dwindling among the Muslim community leaders in Malabar.
In such a scenario, Chennithala’s Munambam visit on 3 January was keenly awaited. For someone who is known to please everyone, Chennithala managed to wriggle out without making controversial remarks.
Chennithala’s challenges
For Chennithala, however, carrying everyone along with him may not be as easy as it is being projected. He still carries the stigma of failing in his bid as the LOP in 2021 to lead the UDF back to power. However, leaders of his faction argue that he will be the frontrunner ahead of Satheesan and the others based on his seniority alone, and reiterate the cases from Rajasthan and Karnataka, where senior Congress leaders were preferred over younger faces.
On the contrary, there are others who argue that the CPI-M could find it easier to tackle Chennithala as a leadership candidate compared to Satheesan since he is not known to be as politically shrewd as the latter in reacting to the political manoeuvre of Pinarayi Vijayan. Satheesan’s attempt to take the initiative on a contentious issue such as Munambam is being rated as the sharpest political move by a Congress leader in Kerala since the days of K Karunakaran and AK Antony.
Even the IUML is conscious of the fact that the UDF has to do as well in central Kerala for a realistic shot at coming back to power, and catering merely to the ‘broader Muslim sentiment’ in Malabar will only backfire. Both the BJP and the Left are waiting in the wings.
Notwithstanding the sceptics, Chennithala has managed to make a successful comeback from the political wilderness after being written off post-2021, with his ‘Nair branding’ now being seen in a totally different light today. As they say, you can never write off a politician. As with clothes, you never know when they come back in vogue.
Anand Kochukudy is a Kerala-based journalist and columnist. He tweets @AnandKochukudy. Views are personal.