It Is Time to Align the Mandate With the Leader

Another set of elections and another theatre of absurdity is unfolding in different parts of our great democratic country.

- Anand Neelakantan

Another set of elections and another theatre of absurdity is unfolding in different parts of our great democratic country. The performance in this farce is nothing short of spectacular. A total disregard for people's mandate, shameless clinging to power, trading that would shame horses, and totally amoral acts for power are what it has unveiled, but it hasn’t got us to raise anything more than a yawn. It is business as usual in the circus of our politics. Across state capitals, the mandate of the voter is treated as a minor administrative detail to be bypassed, bartered, or explicitly violated.

Nowhere is this truer than in Kerala. The Congress-led United Democratic Front secured a thumping majority of 102 seats, riding an anti-incumbency wave. Throughout the campaign, VD Satheesan was projected as the leader of the charge. He had even declared that he would go into political exile if the UDF lost. It seems, despite the victory, political wilderness is his fate. The moment the victory was secured, the democratic process morphed into a classic backroom brawl. Satheesan, Ramesh Chennithala, and KC Venugopal have engaged in a permanent, circular struggle for the throne.

The speculation mills in Thiruvananthapuram and Delhi are working overtime, with leaked reports alternatively claiming that the newly elected MLAs favour Venugopal—who did not even contest the Assembly elections—or that the public sentiment is firmly behind Satheesan. Adding to this paralysis is the veteran Chennithala, the senior-most among all Congress leaders sans AK Antony. When Chennithala stepped aside from the post of Leader of the Opposition in 2021 to make way for Satheesan, it was widely understood within party corridors that he had been promised the Chief Ministerial candidacy for this very election. Now, with the prize in sight, those promises appear as fleeting as election manifestos.