CPM leader and Nilambur's former MLA T K Hamza has a unique electoral history. He is perhaps the only candidate in the country who had Indira Gandhi's support not just when he was with the Indira Congress but also when he had left her party.

However, Hamza's fortunes were influenced by Indira in a complicated way. In late December 1979, when a resurgent post-Emergency Indira Gandhi came to Nilambur, she put her arms around him and told voters that he was her candidate. Hamza lost. Two years later, when she returned to Nilambur as Prime Minister to share the stage with his rival and Congress candidate Aryadan Mohammad, Hamza won.

In January 1980, both state and general elections were held simultaneously. Polls were necessitated in Kerala because of the inherent instability of the Congress-led coalition that won a stupendous victory (111 seats) in the 1977 Assembly elections held right after the Emergency.

The CPI and the Congress looked unlikely together but Congress itself was the bigger problem. Chief Minister K Karunakaran had to resign a month after he was sworn in when the High Court made adverse references to him in the custodial death of engineering student Rajan during the Emergency.

Though Emergency-hater A K Antony replaced Karunakaran as Chief Minister, his Congress faction broke away from the Congress led by Indira Gandhi in 1978 after the Congress decided to field Indira Gandhi as its candidate for the by-election in Chikamagalur, Karnataka. The government capsized.

At the national level, the Janata experiment could not last for more than three years. When elections were declared in late 1979, Indira Gandhi's fortunes were looking up, except in Kerala.

Then, Hamza was the candidate of Indira Congress in Nilambur. Against him was C Haridas of the Antony Congress, which had projected the shared hostility for Indira and Emergency as a reason to strike an alliance with the CPM.

"I remember Indira Gandhi arriving at the campaign venue. There was so much excitement. She walked up to the stage, and held me close. 'This is my candidate. I request you to cast your vote for him', she said in her mesmerising but powerful voice," Hamza told Onmanorama.

Indira's words did no magic. Antony group's Haridas won by 6423 votes. Unfortunately for Hamza, the CPM was riding an anti-Indira wave that was remarkably absent in the 1977 elections held right after the Emergency.

At the same time, Aryadan Muhammed, who was contesting as the Antony Congress and LDF candidate from the Ponnani Lok Sabha constituency, did not benefit from the Emergency bitterness like most other LDF candidates. He lost to Muslim League's G M Banatwala for 50,863 votes.

Since Aryadan was the Antony Congress's most important leader in North Kerala, he could not be left behind. He had to be made a minister in the E K Nayanar ministry.

So Haridas, an austere leader who was still fired by the selfless motives of the freedom struggle, resigned on the 10th day of his win. By-election for Nilambur was quickly declared. Aryadan was the LDF candidate. Hamza was then Malappuram District Congress Committee president. "Since I had lost, it was inappropriate for me to contest again. We chose Mullappally Ramachandran as our (Congress-I) candidate," Hamza said.

As if making up for his loss in Ponnani, Aryadan trounced Mullappally by a margin of 17,841 votes. The anti-Emergency stand of Antony Congress gave Aryadan the aura of a principled politician. He was sworn in as minister for labour and forests in the Nayanar Ministry in 1980.

"But Indira Gandhi's massive victory in the 1980 general elections seemed to have brought about a change of heart in the Antony camp. They now wanted to return to the Congress. I was dead against it," said Hamza, who was then a member of the KPCC Executive Council.

Nonetheless, his leader K Karunakaran had other plans. He wanted to pull the rug from under the Nayanar government and become the Chief Minister. "I told Karunakaran, at least keep the Antony faction separate, not to let them merge with the Indira Congress. I thought they were opportunists who had ditched Indira Gandhi," Hamza said.

The four Antony Group ministers -- Aryadan, P C Chacko, Vakkom Purushothaman and A C Shanmughadas -- resigned in 1981 causing the fall of the first Nayanar Ministry. The Karunakaran and Antony factions decided to fight the 1982 Assembly elections together.

Furious, Hamza left the party and declared that he would contest as an Independent from Nilambur. Indira-baiter Aryadan was the Congress candidate. Hamza had quit the Congress in protest against the party's decision to welcome a faction that had betrayed Indira Gandhi, a reason that should not have normally won CPM's applause. Admiration for Indira conflicted with the CPM thinking. Still, considering the larger goal of avenging what the party believed to be Congress's treachery, the CPM offered Hamza unconditional support.

Once again, Indira Gandhi arrived in Nilambur, this time as the Prime Minister of India to campaign for her candidate Aryadan Muhammed. But Hamza saw in Indira's speech an implicit support for him. "Neither did she say that everyone should vote for Aryadan nor did she say I should be defeated. Instead she said 'When I came here I understood that one of my colleagues is contesting on the other side. I do regret it' she said," Hamza recalled. He cashed in on this.

A senior Congress leader in Malabar said that Hamza had by then picked up a pro-Indira sentiment in Nilambur after her 1980 victory and shrewdly used her remarks to boost his chances. "He quoted her exact words in English in all his campaign speeches and said she meant that she was deeply sad that Hamza, a friend, was fighting against her party," the Congress leader said.

Hamza described Aryadan and Antony as "traitors who deserted Indira at her most difficult moment for power". The CPM was not particularly excited. "Such a pro-Indira line was against our campaign strategy. We were trying to demonise the Congress and here was an Independent we were backing valorising Indira. But since he was only an Independent, we decided to keep our ethics aside and remain silent," a veteran CPM leader and former minister said.

It paid off. Hamza won in a photo-finish, by 1566 votes. The CPM-led alliance lost in the state. Together Karunakaran and Antony were a force to reckon with, and Karunakaran formed his second ministry. Hamza was soon inducted into the CPM, contested from Beypore in 1987 and became the PWD minister in the second Nayanar Ministry from 1987 to 1991.

Aryadan returned to Nilambur in 1987 and had never lost the six elections before he voluntarily retired from politics in 2016.