M A I N   N E W S

The Last Word
Oommen Chandy
The Marathon Man
Getting elected for the 10th consecutive term shows his grass-roots appeal, but leading the ruling coalition with a wafer-thin majority is a challenge. Will he deliver?
T K Devasia

ALL politicians are said to be people persons, but then the new Kerala Chief Minister is different, he is accessible even when he occupies the top position in the state. In fact, Oommen Chandy is surrounded by people wherever he is.

His security people do not like it, but since May 18 when he took over as CM, they have learned to be more flexible with the person who prides himself for being accessible all the time. Anybody can approach this senior Congress leader at any time with any problem, whether he is in power or not. He always likes to be seen with common men. He has personal contacts with more people than any other politician in the state and knows most of the party workers by name.

It is this close bond with the masses that made his party select him to succeed his more ebullient predecessors - K Karunakaran and A K Antony. Although Chandy does not have the political prowess and shrewdness of Karunakaran and the idealism of Antony, he earned a place in the hearts of the people, which in turn led him to the top position in the state.

His election from Puthupally constituency by a margin of over 22,000 votes for the 10th consecutive term is a testimony to the trust the people repose in him. He is the second leader in Kerala to represent a single constituency for over four decades.

“It is people who are my strength and inspiration. I will always remain indebted to the people who always come to my support and help me at all times. My life was an open book for the people of my village, who have seen me right from my childhood days to the present”, says Chandy.

The 68-year-old leader is unquestionably the most popular face of the Congress in Kerala. Fondly called ‘Kunjoonju’ by his fans, Chandy was born in an upper middle-class Christian family at Puthuppally in Kottayam district on October 31, 1943.

After making his foray into politics as a student activist, Chandy led the party’s student and youth wing through the turbulent 1960s along with the Young Turks of the day like Antony and Vayalar Ravi.

Chandy, who stood firmly with late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi when the party split in 1969, played a very important role in building the post-split Congress in Kerala as a mass organisation truly capable of meeting the challenges posed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Even though he had displayed his organisational skills, Chandy did not get opportunity to prove his administrative abilities. This is mainly because he remained under the shadow of Antony. The latter dominated the political space in Kerala for long as a rival to Karunakaran, while Chandy chose to play second fiddle to Antony.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Chandy did not cultivate any godfathers in New Delhi. He became the number one in the party only after Karunakaran fell out of the good books of the Congress high command and Antony moved to New Delhi following a disastrous performance in the 2004 Lok Sabha election.

Chandy was shy in pushing his way up. In his 50 years of political life, he occupied ministerial position for only eight years that too under three different ministries and the Chief Ministership for a mere 20 months. Curiously, he never held a single office for a full term.

However, Chandy displayed his administrative acumen and vision in his brief stints as Minister for Labour in 1977, Home in 1981 and Finance in 1991. He is well known for introducing unemployment allowance to the educated jobless as Labour Minister. As Home Minister, his reforming police uniforms and making the force people-friendly are regularly cited as his major achievements.

As Finance Minister, Chandy had tried to expand the resource base of the state by making the affluent pay for the services, but he quit the ministry before completing his tasks due to differences with the then Chief Minister K Karunakaran.

During his 20-month stint as Chief Minister following Antony resignation in August 2005, he tried to put the state on the fast track of growth by attracting private investments. He was able to rope in several mega projects despite the negative image carried by the state.

However, he bowed out of office before he could see these projects through. Chandy has put some of these projects in his list of priorities. Chief among them is the Smart City project he clinched in the face of stiff competition from the neighbouring states.

Though Chandy said he had differences with the terms of the agreement the previous Left Democratic Front had signed with the Dubai-based TECOM, he would not delay the implementation of the project that promises one lakh jobs.

The fractured verdict in the election forces Chandy to tread further cautiously. With 68 seats in the 140-member Assembly, the LDF will leave no opportunity to fuel trouble in the UDF, which itself is a divided house. But Candy is not worried over the slender majority the UDF has got in the Assembly.

“What count ultimately is not how long one is in power, but how much good one could do while in power. It would be of no use to the state if one could do no good to the needy and eligible persons even if one held on to power for long”, he said.

Chandy is willing to work hard to achieve his goals. He normally works about 20 hours a day, sometime without food and adequate rest. His works usually starts at 6 a.m., when he moves to the drawing room of his residence, often in his night dress, to meet the people who have come from different parts of the state with various problems. He receives them with a smile and tries his best to solve their problems.

He spends the day meeting people and attending meetings and functions. He attends to the files after the office hours. This sometimes goes up to 2 a.m.

Yet, he also finds time to be with his family comprising his wife Mariamma Oommen, daughters Maria and Achu and son Chandy Oommen. While Mariamma Oommen, who is an officer with Canara Bank, takes cares of the family, Achu and Chandy Oommen, who are active members of the party, lend a helping hand to him in politics. Both had actively campaigned for the UDF in the April 13 elections.

Though Chandy did not mind the help, he is careful not to use his position to promote the political career of his children. The Chief Minister also does not allow his children to involve in his functions. He has a clean image in politics, which is irksome to some of his colleagues who have a tainted record.

With the people of his state behind him, he has much strength, in spite of a slender majority in the Legislative Assembly. However, expectations are also high, and clearly Oommen Chandy is well aware of that.