THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kottayam District Congress Committee has decided to celebrate former chief minister Oommen Chandy’s golden jubilee anniversary as a legislator with fanfare, which is being seen as a relaunch pad for him before the next assembly elections. With the Covid-19 protocol in place, the DCC has decided to hold the celebrations at Mammen Mappillai Hall in Kottayam at 5pm on September 17.
It will see 50 personalities from various strata of the society participating at the venue and a whopping 20 lakh party supporters attending it online from across the world. Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi will inaugurate the celebrations via videoconferencing.
Ever since the UDF tasted defeat in the 2016 assembly elections, Oommen Chandy has been pestered by his supporters demanding to know when they can see him returning to take central stage in the state Congress. He keeps brushing off their questions with a smile while maintaining that he has not gone anywhere. Though he is actively intervening in major issues, he keeps away from the nitty-gritty of Congress politics. Once in a while, a buzz is created on whether he will contest in the 2020 assembly elections or not, ensuring that his name is in the air for the chief minister’s post.
Currently, Oommen Chandy holds the record in the country, among those who are still alive, for representing the same assembly constituency (Puthupally) for 11 terms. Earlier, former Kerala Congress (Mani) chairman K M Mani had held the record for being the legislator from Pala for 52 years until his death last year. Oommen Chandy is keen to make the golden anniversary celebrations a low-key affair.
The Kottayam DCC which is organising the event has appointed Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, MLA, as the organising committee convener. “Arrangements are currently on to make the programme a grand success. A slew of personalities from political, social, religious and cultural fields will be attending the celebrations on September 17,” Thiruvanchoor told TNIE.
The programme will see CWC leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, MP, A K Antony and Mukul Wasnik joining from New Delhi via videoconferencing. Apart from the top brass of KPCC, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, CPI secretary Kanam Rajendran and BJP former state president Kummanam Rajasekharan as well as community leaders will also attend the programme.
During his 50 years of representing Puthupally, Oommen Chandy had defeated CPM’s E M George (1970), Janata Party’s P C Cherian (1977), independent M R G Panicker (1980), independent Thomas Rajan (1982), CPM’s V N Vasavan (1987 and 1991), CPM’s Reji Zachariah (1996), CPM independent Cherian Philip (2001), CPM’s Sindhu Joy (2006), CPM’s Suja Susan George (2011) and CPM’s Jaick C Thomas (2016).