NEW DELHI: The dweller of room number 106 since May 18 in Kerala House in the Capital was keeping a low profile, but a phone call at 1.10 p.m. on Wednesday shifted the focus of the media and well wishers towards that room.
Mullappally Ramachandran, a veteran politician, preferred to keep a low key even after trouncing the CPM candidate by a fair margin in its powerhouse of Vadakara, at a time when there was a rush of workers and other leaders to Kerala House to meet the newly-elected MPs.
Though he was asked to stay back in Delhi by the top Congress leadership after giving one of the glamourous victories for the Congress in the state, he was never in high hopes. “This is Delhi, anything could happen,” he used to tell everyone.
On Wednesday, he received the call from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, congratulating him and inviting him to join the Union Ministry. The mood suddenly changed, the room swiftly filled with camera flashes and well wishers and the as the news broke out. The Congress workers distributed sweets to all who gathered in and around.
“Immediately after the call from the Prime Minister, I conveyed the happy news to my mother, who blessed me. I thank all my well wishers, party workers and state leaders who threw their full weight behind me,” a jubilant Mullappally told Express. His wife Usha Ramachandran and only daughter Parvathy were also present to share the joyous moment with the incumbent minister.
“Though I am employed, I have always been with him extending all possible support. I wish I could shift here to be with him,” said Usha Ramachandran, a senior manager with Syndicate Bank in Thiruvananthapuram, speaking to Express.
Their daughter, Parvathy, a Plus-Two student of Mount Carmel school in the state capital, did not hide her joy either.
“Though the portfolio has not been announced, I would work to the best of my abilities for my state, while keeping the national interest in the mind,” said Mullappally.
Mullappally, who was born to freedom fighter Mullappally Gopalan and Pilakkandy Paru Amma in Chombala of Kozhikkode district, entered the politics through the students’ movement.
This is his sixth time he has been elected to the Parliament. In 1991, during his third term as MP, he had been the Minister of State for Agriculture and Cooperation.
