Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 3 When the next Kerala Assembly elections are held, most likely in April–May, they will be the first polls in over five decades without Congress leader and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
However, the candidates of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) are likely to begin their campaign from his grave in Puthupally.
Among the Congress’s most popular faces, its most tireless campaigner and its most dependable vote mobiliser, Chandy, a two-time Chief Minister, represented the Puthupally Assembly constituency continuously from 1970 until his death in 2023 at the age of 79.
Across political eras and shifting voter moods, he remained electorally formidable.
He was the UDF’s single biggest campaign asset. From Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram, Chandy was a familiar presence on campaign trails, often spending long days canvassing for candidates in distant constituencies, leaving himself little time to campaign at home — a constituency he won with remarkable ease.
That familiar figure will be missing this time.
There will be no reassuring handshake, no impromptu conversations with voters, no late-night journeys to remote corners of the state.
Yet, in a paradox that Kerala politics has rarely witnessed, the absence of Chandy has only deepened his presence.
Following his death and the massive public grief during his final journey, Chandy transitioned from a political leader into a moral symbol.
His grave at his home parish church in Puthupally, next door to the house he lived in for decades, has since become a place of "pilgrimage", with hundreds said to arrive daily to pray, reflect and remember.
During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and subsequent by-elections, political leaders cutting across levels made it a point to visit the site, quietly acknowledging the emotional power it carries. In death, Chandy has been freed from political contestation and criticism, leaving only a memory of accessibility, humility and endurance.
It is this frozen image that has led to a striking refrain in Kerala’s political discourse — that Chandy, in death, has become more powerful than he ever was in life.
As Kerala goes to the polls without him, Chandy will not be on the campaign stage. But he will remain central to the election in memory, in symbolism and in Puthupally, where many campaigns will begin in silence.
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