Cong rejigs Kerala list to field Venugopal from Alappuzha; shifts Muralidharan to Thrissur

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday announced the candidature of its General Secretary (Organisation), K C Venugopal from Alappuzha in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, a decision which triggered some rejigging in its Kerala list that led to dropping of a sitting MP.

A victory for Venugopal would mean that Congress will lose one seat in Rajya Sabha to the BJP. He is presently a Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan and in a bypoll, the Congress does not have numbers in the Assembly to re-elect a Congress candidate.

Venugopal’s detractors also see his candidature as the senior leader placing himself in the race for the Chief Minister’s post in the state if the Congress wins the 2026 Assembly elections.

Kerala leaders were unanimous in their decision that Venugopal should return to fight from Alappuzha to regain the lone seat the party lost in the 2019 elections, when he chose not to contest. Congress candidate Shanimol Usman was defeated by AM Arif, who won the lone seat for CPI(M) in Kerala.

Venugopal will be fighting Arif in the upcoming elections. The Congress headquarters saw the last minute political manoeuvres as Kerala leaders met after the Central Election Committee deliberations. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi also gave their nod to Kerala leaders’ plans.

However, to accommodate Venugopal, sources said the leadership had to make some adjustments to balance caste and religion equations. In this, Vadakara MP K Muralidharan was shifted to Thrissur where TN Prathapan was dropped.

If all sitting MPs are fielded along with Venugopal, then Congress would be going to polls without a Muslim candidate. The leadership wanted to avoid such a situation, though initially there was a plan to field a Muslim candidate in Kannur where Congress Kerala president K Sudhakaran had initially expressed desire not to contest.

With Sudhakaran persuaded to recontest, the leadership then decided to drop Prathapan, who had earlier expressed his interest to concentrate in state politics. In Vadakara, former state youth Congress president Shafi Parambil, who belongs to Muslim community, was fielded.

Muralidharan was also taken on board and he is said to have given his green signal as he is facing a tough contest in Vadakara where CPI(M) has fielded former Health Minister KK Shailaja. Although Shafi is learnt to have expressed initial unwillingness, he was later persuaded.

On Thursday, Senior Congress leaders like K Sudhakaran, VD Satheesan, Ramesh Chennithala and Shashi Tharoor among others held deliberations after attending the Central Election Committee meeting. They also held deliberations with Kharge on Friday.