Benny Behanan: The Veteran Congress MP Vying For His Second Term From Chalakudy

Benny Behanan, the Congress candidate from Chalakudy is a B.Com graduate from Sree Sankara College in Kalady. Born in 1952, the incumbent MP from Chalakudy was re-nominated by the party when it announced the first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. He entered politics at a younger age as his father O. Thomas was a renowned freedom fighter who helped him through his political journey.

Starting with being the State President of the Kerala Students Union (KSU), he assumed several important portfolios within the party over the years. He was made the president of the Kerala Pradesh Youth Congress Committee and General Secretary from 1979 to 1982. He served as the General Secretary of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) for 17 years. His first electoral foray was in 1982 from the Piravom assembly constituency. He was then fielded in the 2011 assembly elections and secured the victory.

However, Behanan”s Lok Sabha foray in the 2004 general elections from Idukki was unsuccessful as he lost to the Kerala Congress”s K. Francis Georges. Notably, Mr Behanan emerged victorious in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when he was fielded against the incumbent CPM candidate Innocent. It was a remarkable victory with a margin of 1,32,274 votes in the fiercely contested seat.

He has an asset of over two crore and has four cases against him as per his affidavit. In his Lok Sabha debut tenure, the 71-year-old has participated in 69 debates while registering 85 per cent attendance. He has raised a total of 343 questions and introduced three private bills across sessions. As the veteran politician is vying for another term, the CPM has fielded former Minister C. Raveendranath from the constituency. Notably, the BJP is yet to make inroads in the constituency.