Kerala Assembly Elections 2026 | As V D Satheesan's 'Team UDF' takes charge, K Muraleedharan rises like a phoenix

Having backed Satheesan to the hilt, K Muraleedharan, the senior Congress leader, will be a central figure in Team UDF's scheme of things.

As 'Team UDF' under V D Satheesan took charge at the Central Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram, it marked a come back of sorts for senior Congress leader K Muraleedharan, who is returning to the Kerala Cabinet after 22 long years.

Muraleedharan, son of Congress stalwart K Karunakaran, was made the Electricity Minister in the A K Antony Cabinet in 2004 February, as part of a compromise formula reached then — he was inducted into the Cabinet and forced to relinquish the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee chief post.

But in an irony of sorts, Muraleedharan, who was not a member of the Assembly, lost in the bypolls to the Wadakkanchery seat held two months later and had to resign, earning the dubious distinction of perhaps being only Minister to lose in a byelection.

That defeat was perhaps a watershed moment in Muraleedharan's political career which had its origin in the late 1980's.

Muraleedharan fell out of favour with Congress high command and he along with his father walked out of the party to float their own outfit — Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran). But electoral success continued to evade him as consecutive losses followed — first as a DIC (K) candidate from the Koduvally Assembly seat in 2006 and then as an NCP nominee from the newly formed Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in 2009.

Though Karunakaran and many of his followers were re-inducted into the party, Muraleedharan was still kept out as the new Congress leadership in Kerala saw him as a potential threat to their career ambitions.

However, Muraleedharan was finally back to where he belonged and was fielded from the newly constituted Vattiyoorkavu Assembly seat where he won in 2011 and retained it in 2016.

But having emerged as literally the 'go-to' man of the Congress, Muraleedharan was fielded from Vadakara Lok Sabha seat against CPI(M) strongman P Jayarajan where he won. In a way it reminded of his first electoral battle when he stunned CPI(M) patriarch P Imbichibava from the Kozhikode Lok Sabha constituency in 1989.

Whenever in crisis, the Congress turns to Muraleedharan and it was evident in 2021 Assembly elections when he was fielded from Nemom, though he lost this time. A further setback awaited him in 2024 in the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat, where it is presumed that his own partymen stabbed him in the back.

But after two successive setbacks, Muraleedharan, as is his wont, has risen like a phoenix to regain the Vattiyoorkavu Assembly seat.

It has been a pattern in the Congress to throw Muraleedharan into a battlefield whenever a high-profile contest emerges — Vattiyoorkavu in 2016 and 2026, Vadakara in 2019 and Nemom in 2021 and barring the last mentioned, most of the time he has come out with flying colours.

He himself was candid while admitting in an interview with a vernacular daily that perhaps everybody is not willing to take the kind of "risks" that he is ready to take.

Perhaps that readiness to take the "risk" is the reason why he has been pivoted to the forefront again, this time though in a different role.

With the Congress-led UDF coming back to power in Kerala after a decade with a thumping majority, it was more or less certain that Muraleedharan would be made a Minister. As there was a leadership tussle in the Congress, his name was mentioned in some circles as a potential CM candidate, but wiser sense prevailed as he played down his leadership ambitions and was ready to accept any role the party gave him.

Even as his sister Padmaja Venugopal switched to the BJP camp, Muraleedharan remained loyal to the Congress and its ideologies, a trait which his father, Karunakaran, who was once the machiavellian of Indian politics, was well known for.

Having backed Satheesan to the hilt, the four-time MP and and now a third-time MLA, Muraleedharan will be a central figure in 'Team UDF's' scheme of things. With power tussle between the K C Venugopal and Ramesh Chennithala factions likely to go on and lack of administrative experience being cited as a drawback for Satheesan, the incumbent CM will be looking on someone like Muraleedharan, who has three-and-a-half decades of political acumen, to take things forward.