I started observing Oommen Chandy during my student days. It was the period when he was first elected from Puthuppally. I began understanding Oommen Chandy the politician only after I became an active member of the Grandhasala Sangham and the KSYF.
During the days of the Emergency, I was appointed secretary of the CPM’s joint local committee for Pallickathodu and Akalakunnam. The party wrested control of the panchayat for the first time with the help of the Kerala Congress.
During one of our later meetings, Oommen Chandy told me that he had enquired with his party colleagues about the person behind LDF’s Pallickathodu victory. This shows the keen interest that he evinced in understanding the political undercurrents on his home turf.
It was this zeal to understand and analyse events around him, and to seek solutions that fuelled the political activist named Oommen Chandy to be active for half a century. Later, I had the opportunity to work with him after A K Antony and his supporters split from the Congress, formed Congress (U) and became a part of the LDF.
In 1980, when he contested the Assembly election as an LDF candidate from Puthuppally, I oversaw his electioneering. The LDF’s style of functioning was not familiar to him. However, he wholeheartedly participated in campaigning and registered a spectacular victory.
Later in 1987 and 1991, I contested against him. This was a political responsibility that the party entrusted me with. My electoral battle with him was purely a political one.
He always strived to keep Congress in Puthuppally different from the rest of the country. He was an accessible leader. Anyone, irrespective of political leanings, could approach him. Even though we were on opposite sides politically, we shared a very good personal relationship. (V N Vasavan is Minister for Registration and Cooperation)