KOCHI: The migration of Kerala’s youth to foreign countries has significant implications for society. While experts are examining the economic and social impacts of the exodus, it has also profoundly affected the state’s political parties. Their youth and student wings are suffering from a shortage of capable second-generation leaders.
This trend has particularly impacted the Kerala Congress factions as young people from Central Kerala, where these parties hold influence, are migrating in large numbers to European countries, the US, Australia, and Canada.
Political analysts are of the view that Kerala Congress leaders are largely unaware of the extent to which they are losing their political base.
Kerala Congress feeder organisations, such as the Kerala Students Congress (KSC) and the Kerala Youth Front (KYF), were once considered the nurturing grounds for the parent organisation. However, the student and youth wings of all factions are now facing a severe shortage of capable leaders.
According to political observer Dijo Kappen, there are currently about seven or eight Kerala Congress factions in the state. However, the representation of these groups’ student wings in colleges across the state is minimal.
“If we take the number of university union councillors, the total number of all the councillors of the students’ wing of various Kerala Congress factions will not go up to 10. Once the Kerala Students Congress (KSC) was the main opponent of KSU in the university union elections,” he pointed out.
Leaders like T M Jacob, former MP Thomas Kuthiravattom, and former legislators P C George, Johny Nellore, and K C Joseph were state-level functionaries of the KSC while P J Joseph and the late C F Thomas entered public life through the Youth Front of the undivided Kerala Congress. Even after various splits, leaders such as Joseph M Puthussery, Thomas Unniyadan, Roshy Augustine, and Mons Joseph emerged from the student and youth wings to join the mainstream.
However, the current crisis is that these parties are struggling to cultivate a second generation of leaders. “The major supporters of the Kerala Congress are settler farmers in Kottayam, Idukki, Pathanamthitta, and parts of Ernakulam district. Now, their second generation is settling abroad, and this mass exodus of the state’s youth has hit the Kerala Congress the hardest, as all factions are struggling without a new generation of leadership.
The disappointing factor is that the leaders of Kerala Congress are not aware that the political ground beneath their feet is fast eroding,” said Kappen.
Previously, migration was primarily to Middle Eastern countries, where those moving abroad remained voters and stayed involved in political activities. They often returned and started living in Kerala. However, the current trend sees people moving to Europe and America and settling there permanently.
S Irudaya Rajan, an expert in Migration Studies, noted that this trend is part of a broader migration pattern. “In the southern districts, not all youths are moving abroad, but naturally, it has implications for political parties as well,” he added.
Shortage of leaders
Kerala Congress feeder organisations, such as the Kerala Students Congress (KSC) and the Kerala Youth Front (KYF), were once considered the nurturing grounds for the parent organisation
However, the student and youth wings of all factions are now facing a severe shortage of capable leaders