In a stark political critique, both the son and daughter of veteran Congress leader and three-time Kerala chief minister K Karunakaran accused the party of betraying their father's legacy. Karunakaran’s children – K Muraleedharan and Padmaja Venugopal – accused the Kerala unit of the Congress of political backstabbing and lack of internal transparency. While Padmaja recently switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Muraleedharan, the sitting MP from Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency, lost to the National Democratic Front’s (NDA) star candidate Suresh Gopi in Thrissur in the parliamentary polls that recently concluded.
Muraleedharan, responding to his defeat in Thrissur, said that the Kerala Congress is to blame for this loss. “Not just the district party workers, but the entire organisational structure is in trouble in Kerala,” he said at the press meet on June 4.
He criticised the national leadership of the Congress, alleging that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended three rallies for the BJP candidate in Thrissur and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan campaigned for the LDF candidate, only Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar rallied for the United Democratic Front (UDF). He added that others could have come for the campaign as Rahul Gandhi had fallen sick at the time, but they didn’t.
Muraleedharan also pointed out that he would have won if he had been fielded from Vadakara. The decision to field Muraleedharan from Thrissur instead of Vadakara was a last-minute one, and it was said that the Congress did this to counter Suresh Gopi by placing Muraleedharan, whose family has roots in Thrissur. The move was also seen as a tactic for damage control after his sister and former Congress leader Padmaja Venugopal switched to the BJP. Muraleedharan expressed disappointment in the BJP opening its account in Kerala from the constituency in which he contested.
Suresh Gopi is the first BJP candidate to go to the Parliament from Kerala, and his win is a major leap for the saffron party which has been struggling to open an account in the state for many years. “I wouldn’t have been sad if the Left Democratic Front (LDF) had won. But after struggling and closing the account of the BJP in Nemom, it is sad that they opened an account in the constituency where I contested,” he said.
In 2016, the BJP opened an account in the state Assembly with the victory of O Rajagopal from Nemom. In 2021, it was reversed, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s V Sivankutty emerged as the winner. However, Muraleedharan’s presence as the Congress candidate was crucial in pushing the BJP to the third place.
Muraleedharan’s sister Padmaja Venugopal also made serious allegations against the Congress earlier this year after quitting the party and joining the BJP. She accused the Congress of systemic misogyny and said that she was defeated by people from within the party in both the elections she contested from Thrissur in 2016 and 2021.
“As of now, the party’s culture is really degenerative. They won’t let any woman succeed, look at why Bindu Krishna or Shanimol have never had a major election win yet. They may give seats to women, but they don’t think much of any woman,” Padmaja had said in an interview with a Malayalam news channel.
Concerning the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Padmaja had expressed disappointment at Muraleedharan being nominated from Thrissur. "Some of the leaders in Thrissur don't like Karunakaran's children. I think my brother would have easily won from the Vadakara seat. I wonder why the party fielded him from Thrissur," she said.
In his political career spanning 35 years, Muraleedharan has contested 12 elections – seven general elections and five Assembly elections– of which he won six. While he lost three out of five Assembly elections, he won four out of seven Lok Sabha elections to the lower house of the Parliament. His sister Padmaja contested three elections and lost all of them.
In 2024, Thrissur saw a much-anticipated triangular contest between Suresh Gopi, K Muraleedharan, and VS Sunil Kumar (LDF). Suresh maintained a consistent majority right from the early stages of the counting and won with a total of 4,12,338 votes and a margin of 74,686 votes. Sunil Kumar came second with 3,37,652 votes, followed by K Muraleedharan with 3,28,124 votes.
Based on the election data given by the Election Commission of India, it seems like a large chunk of the UDF votes might have been transferred to the BJP in Thrissur.
Though many candidates raise allegations against their parties after suffering losses in elections, Muraleedharan’s concerns about the Kerala Congress’ structural decay and lack of integrity are important pointers to note. Similarly, in his sister’s case, though her shift to the BJP may be for reasons best known to her, her revelations about gender bias within the party are very telling of why women struggle to come up in politics. At the time of the elections, the party was criticised for only fielding one female candidate (Remya Haridas) in the state despite its leader Rahul Gandhi passionately vouching for the Women’s Reservation Bill.
These allegations against the Congress are concerning, especially when coming from the children of K Karunakaran, a stalwart who founded the Kerala Congress Indira Group or the (I) Group at the time of the 1978 national emergency and left behind a towering legacy in politics.
