THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: He was always a man of consensus. And his party consistently relied on him in critical moments. Veteran communist Paloli Mohammed Kutty was elected to the assembly in 1965. But he had to wait two years to become an MLA, as the election was nullified.
Notably, the 95-year-old’s first candidature—to Malappuram’s Puzhakkattiri panchayat in 1964—happened on a conciliatory note. “Conciliatory measures began around midnight, leading to heated arguments over candidates…at times nearing a fight.
All this was happening on the verandah of someone’s house. At some point, I fell asleep,” Paloli recalled, describing how he became the panchayat president. “Someone woke me at about 5am. Comrades Rajendran, Rajappan and Vasu Menon later told me, ‘Kunjayu has agreed to stay away, if Paloli contests.’ The party decided I should contest to avoid losing the seat.”
Paloli had moved from Kodoor to Puzhakkattiri. The panchayat had seven wards, with the Left and IUML holding three each. In Kadinapuram ward, the League had strong backing. But with the backing of agricultural workers, the Left sensed a chance.
Then came a dramatic twist: the daughter of a farmer married a League candidate, prompting him to switch sides and triggering a split within the farming community. This, in turn, led to Paloli’s surprise candidature, which later propelled him to the assembly.
In 1965, amid a tumultuous political environment, Paloli contested from Mankada in a three-cornered fight against IUML’s K K S Thangal and Congress’s Seshu Iyer. “At that time, of our senior leaders, only EMS [Namboothiripad] and Jyothi Basu were outside — others were in jail,” he recalled. Paloli won by around 1,300 votes. But the Assembly was dissolved with no party able to form a government. The state remained under President’s rule for two years.
He later contested and won from Perinthalmanna in 1967, an election that drew attention as the League had aligned with the Left. The Muslim League’s C H Mohammed Koya, who later briefly became chief minister, won from Paloli’s debut seat, Mankada, that year.