K Muralidharan And His Battles In Election Arena
K Muralidharan is a name that resonates high in Kerala politics. It will not be wrong to say that since Muralidharan entered electoral politics in 1989, there were no elections in which he has not been a part of. The Congress leader have an interesting track record of winning six and losing six out of the 12 elections he contested for.
The Trissur-born Muralidharan joined politics during his father K Karunakaran’s acme days in politics. He stepped into politics as worker of Congress party’s Seva Dal. He was proposed to be the candidate of Congress from Kozhikode constituency during the 1989 Lok Sabha election, while he was serving as state chairman of Seva Dal. His father, K Karunakaran was the chief minister of Kerala, and one of the most powerful figures in the state Congress. However, fielding of Muralidharan, who does not have much experience in the works Congress has created factionalism within the party.
Though his candidature has witnessed several controversies, Muralidharan made it to the Parliament by defeating strong opposition of CPI (M)’S EK Impachibawa from Kozhikode, with a tremendous margin of 28, 957 votes. He retained the seat during the 1991 general election too. But in the 1996, Muralidharan lost his Kozhikode seat to Janata Dal’s Virendra Kumar.
K Karunakaran, though the powerful figure in Kerala’s politics, had faced criticism over his alleged move to bring his son Muralidharan into leadership of the party garnered criticism within the party. When Karunakaran was met with a car accident and question about whether he would return to politics with full health arose, it paved way for the succession dispute. Criticisms were hurled at Muralidharan that those who worked for the party are being sidelined for the sake of the heir in the leadership.
Muralidharan’s defeat during his third Lok Sabha election was at a time when the Congress politics was in turmoil and Karunakaran was forced to resign from Chief Minister position over the case of espionage. During the next Lok Sabha election in, Muralidharan was given ticket from Trissur, which was unexpected. He contested against CPI’s stalwart candidate V V Raghavan, and lost with a majority of 18,409 votes. During the 1999 election, Muralidharan was again fielded from Kozhikode constituency and won the Lok Sabha seat for the third after defeating Janata Dal’s CM Ibrahim.
Muralidharan appeared in the election arena under the name of newly formed DIC (Democratic Indira Congress), which was formed by K Karunakaran after breaking away from Congress. Muralidharan contested in the 2006 assembly elections in alliance with the United Democratic Front (UDF), from Koduvally and lost to PTA Rahim by 7506 votes. Later, when DIC allied with National Congress Party (NCP), Muralidharan contested from Wayanad, but lost, during the 2009 Lok Sabha election. During the 2011 assembly election, he contested from Vattiyoorkkavu constituency and won with the majority of 16,167 votes. In 2016, he was again elected from the same constituency.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Muralidharan was fielded from Vadakara unexpectedly. The move made the game all the more interesting as there were a lot of confusion as who would Congress field to lock horns with CPI (M)’s P Jayarajan. Muralidharan won with a huge majority of 84,663 votes.
During the 2021, Nemam, the sitting seat of BJP was a huge debate. While other political parties fielded bigger names in the constitution, Congress gave ticket to Muralidharan. However, CPI(M)’s Shivankutty captured the seat from BJP, and Muralidharan came third in the vote sharing.
Once again, Muralidharan was preparing to compete from Vadakara, for the upcoming Lok Sabha election. With strong opponent like CPI (M)’s KK Shailaja, the election process is anticipated to be filled with twists and turns. However, when Muralidharan’s sister, Padmaja Venugopal, who was also a notable figure in the Kerala’s Congress, has joined BJP during the last moment, the game changed. Congress realized that Trissur, which was a strong hold of Karunakaran may favour BJP, as Padmaja decided to field from the constituency. So, Muralidharan is prepping to the saviour of the party once again, with unexpected election results.
Muralidharan’s candidature in Thrissur is significant because of the recent development of his sister Padmaja Venugopal shifting allegiance to BJP. Congress decided to field its election warrior to keep its cadres in confidence after Padmaja’s shift to the saffron side. Muralidharan has already denounced Padmaja’s move and said K Karunakaran’s soul would not forgive the decision.
