THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The electorate of the state and the country are no stranger to political dynasties. In fact, every state has its political family. Even in Kerala, kinship is now being increasingly used by some parties for distributing political power. The state has a substantial number of such families and candidates, especially from Kerala Congress, diluting the essence of inner-party democracy. Parties like Congress, IUML and, to some extent, CPI are also experimenting with some forms of dynasties.
As poll campaigning enters final phase, a look at the candidate list of the LDF and UDF reveals that around two dozen candidates from political families have been fielded by mainstream parties. The wards of K M George, K M Mani, R Balakrishna Pillai and C H Mohammed Koya, besides V E Abdul Gafoor, son of Muslim League former minister V K Ebrahim Kunju who was arraigned in the Palarivattom flyover scam, are in the fray. In Kerala, the subject of family politics cannot be discussed without mentioning former CM K Karunakaran, who introduced his wards K Muraleedharan and K Padmaja Vengugopal to state politics, making hereditary succession a talking point in early 1990s.
But, it is perhaps P C Thomas – son of P T Chacko, the first Opposition leader of a newly-formed Kerala – who was the first mainstream politician to stage his political debut. Political observer N M Pearson believes that barring one or two cases, dynasty politics has not done any good for Kerala. “There has been no qualitative improvement in governance through family politics. Instead, it degrades politics as a family enterprise,” he said.