Senior Congress leader and former chief minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandy with his trademark unkempt hair, graceful smile and soft sober nature is a painful memory now. With his unmatchable political acumen and human face, Chandy became one of the most popular leaders in Kerala with his ability to merge with people and be one with them. 

Even his political opponents will not differ if Chandy is described as the kindest and most humane politician leader in Kerala.

Chandy, who breathed his last this Tuesday morning in a Bangalore hospital, made his entry into politics through the Kerala Students Union (KSU), the student wing of Congress in the state. He started as an office bearer of the school unit of KSU and was catapulted as the president of KSU in 1967 through his unique style of functioning.

The trio of A.K. Antony, Vayalar Ravi and Oommen Chandy played a pivotal role in energizing the student and youth wings of the Congress party in Kerala. After the formation of the Kerala Congress party in 1965 under the leadership of senior leaders who left the party, Congress was facing a major crisis in Kerala with the party ending up fighting the assembly election alone in 1967. 

Congress then had only 9 members in the assembly and K. Karunakaran was the leader of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP). Under the leadership of K. Karunakaran, a group of young leaders of those days including Antony, Vayalar Ravi and Oommen Chandy played a major role in reviving the Congress party. 

In the 1970 elections to the Kerala assembly, Congress fielded a group of young leaders including Antony, Chandy, N. Ramakrishnan, and A.C. Shanmughadas, among others. Chandy successfully fought from Puthuppally, a constituency in central Kerala’s Kottayam district, which he consecutively represented 12 times for a period spanning 53 years until his demise.

He joined the coalition ministry led by K. Karunakaran in 1977 as minister for labour. Later, he handled the home ministry (1982), and finance ministry in 1991. Chandy resigned as finance minister in protest over the denial of a Rajya Sabha seat to a faction member in 1994. This was at the height of the factional feud in the Congress party in the state where he led the ‘A’ group, comprising followers of Antony as opposed to the official ‘I’ group that was loyal to the chief minister, K. Karunakaran. Incidentally, these groups continue even to this day with Chandy known as the patriarch of the ‘A’ group which was dominant in the party till recently.

Chandy became chief minister of Kerala in 2004 after the resignation of A. K. Antony following the poor performance of the Congress party in the state in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. He took over the chief minister again in 2011, a tenure which saw many infrastructural projects being initiated in the state. Many of these projects, including the Kochi Metro, Vizhinjam International Seaport, and Kannur International Airport, could be cited as landmark and defining initiatives in a state which was infamous for militant labour and shunned by the industry.  

Similarly, during his tenure as chief minister, Chandy initiated the establishment of 8 Medical colleges in Kerala. Typical of his status as a mass leader, Chandy’s term in office saw numerous social welfare initiatives, like the Karunya benevolent scheme, which was a critical health coverage plan for the underprivileged, and continues to be a source of immense support to thousands of families even today. Another scheme was Sruthi Tharangam, to conduct Cochlear implantation surgery for children with hearing impairment.

Mass leader’s mass contact

The mass contact programme that was initiated by Chandy was unprecedented in scale and intensity. Even though his political opponents ridiculed this mass outreach programme, it was a grand success and remains an unparalleled exercise not just in Kerala but across the country. As a leader who spent the bulk of his day (and night) with the people, the aim of the mass contact programme was also to connect with the people directly to understand their grievances, problems and aspirations. 

The image of the chief minister standing continuously for 15 to 18 hours to listen to the woes and grievances of the common man and finding instant solutions shall remain an enduring image. While the people of the state may not have endowed this grand outreach programme the reward it deserves, the United Nations, for its part, recognized Chandy’s feat and endowed the Public Service Award for the mass contact programme.

As an administrator, Chandy had a natural bent for welfare schemes that benefitted the poor. In some ways, it will be accurate to affirm that he had followed the talisman of Mahatma Gandhi that when you are in doubt recall the face of the poorest and weakest man.

A deft leader and crowd puller

The first image of Oommen Chandy that comes to our mind is of the crowd in his midst. Chandy, in fact, once remarked in an interview that he is afraid of loneliness. While attending a public function in Calicut as chief minister years ago, a child innocently called him out by his name. Without blinking an eye, and with his charismatic smile, he lent a patient ear to the child who narrated to him the plight of her friend who had no home. Chandy took up the issue on priority and helped that family get a dwelling. 

Such has been his exceptional connection with the masses that he melted into the crowds ignoring his own security and tried to reach out to the needy and underprivileged.

Chandy, undoubtedly, was a multifaceted leader and proved his mettle as an efficient administrator as well as a shrewd politician who managed Congress politics in Kerala. Such has been his political acumen that he not just commandeered a factional feud against K. Karunakaran, who was formidable and seemed invincible at one point in time but also displaced him from the pivot of Kerala’s as well as of Congress politics. 

Interestingly, Chandy led this campaign through a faction that was identified with A.K. Antony, but, in reality, was a grouping under his control. 

In hindsight, many observers might blame this factional feud as a reason for undermining the organizational basing of the Congress in Kerala. Scandals like the ISRO espionage case, which was used to oust Karunakaran from power and political influence, had cast a long shadow over Chandy’s role for many years. 

However, many of the party’s followers also see the rebellion against Karunakaran and the resultant factional feud as an outcome of the latter’s efforts to promote his family over the leadership claims of many young leaders. As a former colleague of Chandy remarked in his tribute: “Chandy knew how to eliminate a threat to the Congress party with tact and elan.”   

On the other hand, Chandy’s political deftness and leadership qualities were also most evident as a troubleshooter for the party, especially in managing the murky ways of coalition politics. What began as troubleshooting soon turned into the resolute voice for the party, and eventually the final word for the United Democratic Front (UDF), which his party spearheaded, till recent years. 

The generational shift in the Indian National Congress (INC) and the national level and deteriorating health in recent years led to Chandy gradually fading away from politics and public life. While remaining the towering figure for the INC in the 2021 assembly elections in Kerala, in which the party fared poorly, Chandy ensured that he was back in the assembly and shunning all opportunities that national politics beckoned. 

A life of trials and tribulations 

In his 50-year-long political career, Chandy faced many ups and downs. In his second term as CM, the solar scandal created political turmoil in Kerala and could have been the primary reason why he was not voted back to power despite his popularity. Despite unproven allegations of financial irregularity and baseless insinuations about sexual favours, Chandy faced this barrage of attacks in the most composed and elegant manner, a trait which is rarely seen in Indian politics. 

Chandy always kept a cool composure and was never seen to be vindictive against his rivals. Such has been his sense of moral standing that he had no hesitation in forming a judicial commission to conduct an inquiry into this scandal and the allegations against him. It is difficult to expect such transparent politics in contemporary Indian politics which is now rife with abuse of power and office. 

It is worthwhile to note that Chandy deposed for over 14 hours with conviction before the same Commission that he constituted. The preposterous claims made in the sexual exploitation case were rejected by CBI later. Similarly, in the corruption case, Chandy filed a defamation suit against the then Opposition leader V.S Achuthanandan with the court eventually ordering the latter to pay Rs 10.10 lakh as defamation charges to Chandy.

During those testing times, Chandy was famously quoted stating that he will prove his innocence before the court of his conscience. Eventually, how these cases progressed and proved his innocence showed that his confidence was not unfounded. In fact, in the din of the solar scam, Chandy and his family were subjected to personal attacks though Chandy gracefully ignored them and did not encourage his supporters to counter such vicious attacks.

Loyal to the party and supporters

In 1978, when A.K. Antony left the Congress along with Devaraj Urs, Chandy also left the Congress led by Indira Gandhi, but only to return to the fold along with Antony, who was not just a fellow traveller but his conscience keeper as well, and vice versa. Chandy was impeccable in his loyalty to the INC and the Gandhi family even when he was seemingly in disagreement with the approaches of the new generation leaders. 

What though made Chandy a popular and mass leader was not just his connection with the masses but also his unstinting loyalty and support to his supporters within the party. Chandy was often ready to risk his leverage and position in his party and challenge the high command where and when it concerns his loyalists. Besides his resignation in 1994, Chandy’s adamant position in demanding seats for his loyalists in the 2016 assembly elections could be traced as genesis for his being at loggerheads with new-generation leaders like Rahul Gandhi. 

Needless to say, Chandy’s departure is a great loss to the Congress in Kerala. It will take years for another leader with his charisma and mass following to emerge in the party. At a time when Congress is facing its biggest crisis since its inception, on account of repeated electoral defeats at the national level and in Kerala, the void created by the loss of a leader of Chandy’s caliber is not easy to fill.