The Congress in Kerala has gone for what could be in tech terms a system update with its latest leadership rejig. All that it dreams of now is to time travel. An overwhelming wish to go back to 2001 was all evident in the recent event where Sunny Joseph took charge as the new Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president along with P C Vishnunadh, Shafi Parambil and A P Anilkumar as working presidents. 

Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan did not mention 2001 but promised the national leadership that the collective leadership would bring back the Congress-led UDF to power in Kerala with over 100 seats. Shafi Parambil was more specific. “It is not 2021 or 2016 or even 2011 that we are going to repeat. Together, we are going to repeat 2001,” The Vadakara MP told the gathering of Congress ranks and files. Having suffered two assembly election losses in a row and being out of power for 10 years in the state, Congress and its allies are looking back to the year when they recorded the biggest win in their history in the state with a sense of nostalgia and hope. Memory as an election tool, perhaps. 

Why 2001?
The Congress and its allies won 99 seats out of 140 in the 2001 assembly elections, and the figure touched a century when M A Vaheed, who won as a Congress rebel, rejoined the party. The 2001 election remains the best yet in the history of Congress in Kerala, as the party alone won 62 seats. Since then, it has been a downfall. Even when the UDF came back to power in 2011 (only once in the next four elections), the single largest party was the rival CPM. 

Now, with only a year into the next assembly elections, 2001 looks like the paradise Congress lost and is desperate to regain. Ask, but how? Congress insiders would point out what they perceive as similarities in political situations.

The 2001 results was one of the biggest anti-incumbency verdicts in the history of Kerala. The people’s desire to vote out the E K Nayanar-led Left front government was so evident in the mandate. 

“The elections happened at a time when the state was going through a huge financial crisis. The Nayanar government had miserably failed in fiscal management, and even the treasuries were shut. Also, two prominent communities, Christians and Ezhavas (traditionally mostly CPM supporters) had turned against the CPM following intense agitations on two of their prominent colleges – St Thomas College, Thrissur and SN College, Kollam – by CPM’s student wing, SFI,” Congress historian and commentator Nissam Syed told Onmanorama. He said the Nayanar government also failed to get the expected benefit of its popular People’s Planning programme (Janakeeyasoothranam).

K Balakrishnan, the press secretary to Chief Minister V S Achuthananadan during 2006-11 who has chronicled the electoral history of Kerala, has linked the fiscal crisis during the final years of the Nayanar government to the people’s planning project. In his 2019 book “Janadhipathya Keralam”, Balakrishnan has pointed out how the release of 40% of the plan fund to local bodies without adequate experience in implementation left the treasury empty. 

2001 to 2025, Similar or different?

Congress leadership is of the view that the fiscal situation in the state is much similar to that of 2001 and the anti-incumbency is even worse due to various reasons with the corruption allegations against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his daughter topping the list. The opposition party is aware of the potential damage the internal rift – a constant in the Congress system – can cause and is keen to project a face of unity. 

The 2001 episode, however, says people may forgive internal fights when their priority is to oust those in power who make their lives miserable. The election took place when the ‘K Karunakaran vs A K Antony’ factionalism was at its peak. Karunakaran even replaced three candidates finalised by the party from the campaign front midway. The anti-incumbency was so strong that even the three Congress candidates who got only two weeks for campaigning won.

Severe party nepotism in selecting beneficiaries of government schemes, utter financial mismanagement and controversies over political secretary P Sasi’s undue influence over the chief minister’s office are cited as the factors that contributed to the anti-incumbency wave against the Nayanar government. The Kalluvathukkal hooch tragedy of October 2000 came as the final nail in the coffin. Incidentally, Sasi is the political secretary to CM Pinarayi also, and he continues to be at the centre of controversies.

However, a keen look into the current scenario reveals that the comparison with 1996-2001 could be out of place. While the fiscal crisis, for which the LDF blames the BJP-led central government, is a fact, the current dispensation is keen not to make its effect felt on the ground. Extreme attention is paid to pay welfare pension arrears, for instance. Unlike the 2000 scenario, there is an increase in government revenues. The push for development projects and private investments, despite criticism of ideological deviations, also marks a key difference. Add to these an all-out effort in publicity management by the current government, while there was no attempt to counter the slew of allegations the Nayanar government faced. 

The differences in the political equations also come into play in the comparison game. 

The UDF was a stronger alliance in 2001, with Kerala Congress (M) also winning 11 seats. The KC(M) is now part of the LDF. Forget KC(M), Kerala politics was still a two-way contest between LDF and UDF in 2001, with the BJP-led NDA polling just 5% of the votes. The scene is no longer the same. In 2021, NDA’s vote share stood at 12%. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, it rose to 19.24% (UDF – 45.21%, LDF – 33.34%). Moral of the story: 2026 need not be fit for a black and white rerun of 2001. The saffron tint might make it more puzzling.