THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Siblings Padmaja Venugopal and K Muraleedharan are hogging the limelight after the former joined the BJP raising its poll prospects in Thrissur, and the Congress, in a masterstroke, nullified the move by shifting the latter from Vadakara to the cultural capital, that was once the political playground of their late father K Karunakaran.
Muraleedharan has so far contested 12 elections (seven to Lok Sabha and five to the state assembly), as a Congress, Democratic Indira Congress (DIC) and NCP candidate and won six and lost six. He lost three out of five elections to the state assembly. Muraleedharan’s performance in LS elections is slightly better - he won four out of seven elections to the lower house of Parliament. Padmaja contested three elections, and lost all three.
Muraleedharan started his parliamentary career in 1989 by winning the Kozhikode LS seat, defeating CPM’s Imbichi Bava. In 1991 he got re-elected defeating Janata Dal’s M P Veerendra Kumar. In 1996 Muraleedharan tasted his first electoral defeat when he lost to Veerendra Kumar. In 1998 he shifted to Thrissur, but lost to CPI’s V V Raghavan. In 1999, he returned to Kozhikode and wrested the seat by defeating Janata Dal’s CM Ibrahim.
Muraleedharan joined the A K Antony government as power minister in 2004. Since he had to get elected to the state assembly within six months, Karunakaran zeroed in on Vadakkanchery, the Congress citadel the party had never lost in its electoral history, and asked the citing MLA V Balaram to resign. However, CPM’s newcomer A C Moideen dealt a shocker defeating him by a margin of 3,715 votes.
Thus Muraleedharan earned the dubious distinction of the only sitting minister to lose a byelection in the state’s history. And Moideen has continued his winning streak from Vadakkanchery and the newly formed Kunnamkulam so far.
In 2006, with UDF backing, Muraleedharan contested from Koduvally as a DIC candidate, and lost to CPM’s PTA Rahim. In the 2009 LS elections, he contested from Wayanad as NCP candidate and finished third.
However, in the 2011 assembly elections, he made a comeback from Vattiyoorkavu in the state capital defeating CPM’s Cheriyan Philp by 16,167 votes. In 2016, he was reelected, but with a reduced margin.
In the 2019 LS electionas, Muraleedharan contested from Vadakara and defeated CPM’s P Jayarajan. In the 2021 assembly elections, the Congress fielded him in Nemom, where he finished third.
Padmaja contested her first LS elections in 2004 from the Congress bastion Mukundapuram. However, she lost to CPM’s Lonappan Nambadan by a huge margin of 117,097 votes. In the 2016 assembly elections Padmaja lost to CPI’s VS Sunil Kumar in Thrissur. Again in 2021, she lost to CPI’s P Balachandran.
POLL HISTORY
K Muraleedharan
Lok Sabha
1989 Kozhikode won by 28,957 votes (Congress)
1991 Kozhikode won by 15,884 votes (Congress)
1996 Kozhikode lost by 38,703 votes (Congress)
1998 Thrissur lost by 18,409 votes (Congress)
1999 Kozhikode won by 50,402 votes (Congress)
2009 Wayanad lost by 1,53,439 votes (NCP candidate)
2019 Vadakara won by 84,663 votes (Congress)
2004 Vadakanchery (by-election) lost by 3,715 votes (Congress)
2006 Koduvally lost by 7,506 votes (DIC with UDF support)
Assembly
2011 Vattiyoorkavu won by 16,167 votes (Congress)
2016 Vattiyoorkavu won by 7,622 votes (C0ngress)
2021 Nemom lost (3rd place) votes secured 36,524 votes (Congress)
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Padmaja Venugopal
Lok Sabha
2004 Mukundapauram lost by 1,17,097 votes
Assembly
2016 Thrissur lost by 6,987 votes
2021 Thrissur lost by 946 votes
