THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The victory of Congress in the Palakkad bypoll has established V D Satheesan as the numero uno in the state Congress. It was Satheesan who singlehandedly led the Palakkad fight from the front.
All decisions, including the candidature of Rahul to bringing Sandeep Varier to the party were his. Satheesan even dared to say that the fallouts, if any, of Palakkad bypoll would be entirely his responsibility. It was a risky move politically, as any setback in strategies would have put his future at stake. But fortunately for Satheesan, it paid off well and he has become the unquestionable leader in the party.
When Satheesan was elected as the parliamentary party leader in 2021 after the huge setback in the assembly elections, not everyone was in a mood to accept his ascension. For Satheesan, it was a long and bitter battle to form his own inner group in the party. However, with the vacuum created by Oommen Chandy’s demise and teh fragmentation of the once powerful ‘I’ group, Satheesan hand-picked his own people in each district. Though it led to face-off with state president K Sudhakaran, Ramesh Chennithala and K Muraleedharan, front partners found a new friend in him.
“It was his prudent strategies that changed the way UDF faced elections,” a senior UDF leader told TNIE. “He was instrumental in registering a record win in Palakkad and Wayanad. We had apprehension about the selection of Rahul Mankootathil and the damage caused by Sarin’s exit. But he was confident about overcoming the challenges,” he said.
Under Satheesan, Congress started the preliminary election works in Palakkad three years ago. “I used to travel to Palakkad and Chelakkara seven or eight times a month. We formed committees at the ward level. When we sensed that there were internal problems in BJP we decided to concentrate on Palakkad town. However, our workers informed me that there were 12 booths in which the BJP would not allow us to deploy our booth agent. We formed four special squads with Youth Congress workers from outside the constituency. For the first time we could depute booth agents there,” he said.
‘Operation Sandeep Varier’, a masterstroke of Satheesan, also worked in favour of the Congress. We struck an understanding with Sandeep a week before his fallout with the BJP. We waited till the CPM gave its good certificate to him,” a Congress leader said. Satheesan’s coordinated works and understanding with UDF partners also helped the Congress in the end. When CPM started attacking Congress for its alleged minority appeasement, he brought in IUML leaders to Palakkad to counter the Left campaign.
With senior leaders like Ramesh Chennithala, K C Venugopal and K Muraleedharan not posing serious challenges to him, Satheesan could comfortably set the pace for the next assembly election and eye the CM post in case of a UDF win.