ALAPPUZHA: Vylopally Mama Sudheeran’s biggest political defeat came at the hands of Virippukandathil Sreedharan Sudheeran, who is not even a politician. But this giant kill in the 2004 Lok Sabha election has earned the latter a place in the annuls of state political history.
The first Sudheeran is better known as V M Sudheeran, who went on to become the KPCC president, while the other Sudheeran, or V S Sudheeran, is still a loyal CPM activist and an employee of the Alappey Coir Company at Puthanangadi near Cherthala.
In the 2004 election for the Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituency, the Congressman lost to CPM-backed independent candidate K S Manoj by 1,009 votes after Sudheeran garnered 8,332 votes. “I don’t feel guilty that I caused V M Sudheeran’s defeat in the 2004 election,” said 49-year-old V S Sudheeran in an unassuming voice.
“I have been a Communist since my childhood. My friends inspired me to submit the nomination as a namesake and they pooled in the money for the deposit. But I never thought that I would garner that many votes,” said the Kallappuram native.
“My symbol was a shuttlecock. Not just the name, even the symbol looked similar to Congress’ hand symbol and that helped me get many votes,” he told TNIE.But he said the veteran Congressman also had faced internal squabbles that eroded his vote base.
“There was strong opposition to Sudheeran from within the Congress party then. His active campaign against the sand mining mafia and other illegal activities had angered the industrial lobbies, which also proved his undoing,” he said.
“I cornered around 1,500 votes in Vellakinar booth in Alappuzha municipality, which is considered a stronghold of the Congress and the Muslim League. Maybe the UDF supporters too polled against Sudheeran and that increased my tally,” Sudheeran said. Manoj, who Sudheeran helped win in 2004, was then a new face.
Since then, he has switched sides and is now contesting the assembly election as a Congress candidate in Alappuzha.“The Congress started the practice of fielding namesakes to defeat LDF candidates. With the 2004 election, they realised that the namesake can do damage to their candidates,” V S Sudheeran said.