Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala is a unique leader in that he is both the beneficiary of the glorious possibilities politics offers and also the victim of the treacherous traps it lays.

He became the youngest minister at 28; the minister of rural development in K Karunakaran's ministry in 1986. At that point of time he was Rajiv Gandhi's blue-eyed boy; a speech Chennithala made in Hindi had so charmed Rajiv that he asked K Karunakaran to spare Chennithala for Delhi duties.

A quarter century later, in 2011, when the Congress won, Chennithala was not even a minister, though it was under his stewardship as KPCC president that the party went to the polls. And in 2021, when he was nearly anointed the Chief Minister, the UDF lost for an unprecedented second time. 

If this was tragic for Chennithala, an insult awaited him. He was unseated as the Opposition Leader, and a leader he had mentored, V D Satheesan, was appointed in his place. "I did all that was humanly possible for an Opposition Leader to do," he told Malayala Manorama Thiruvananthapuram bureau chief Sujith Nair at Manorama Hortus during the session 'Near Opportunities' on November 28.

Chennithala conceded that the 2021 loss did rankle. "The pandemic did us in. Any government in that situation would have helped the people. But the people saw in the rice and provision kits distributed the large-heartedness of Pinarayi Vijayan. The Opposition could do nothing. We were denied a level-playing field," the former home minister said.

However, it was the way the opposition leader's post was taken away from him that hurt him more. By the time the Congress 'high command' tried to assuage him, Chennithala had already felt slighted. "I did not utter a word after I was called to Delhi and told why I was replaced. Essentially, I was told that to step down would be the right thing to do after a loss. But they could have told me this earlier. I myself would have recommended Satheesan's name," Chennithala aid.

Though he had occasionally expressed his resentment, Chennithala had abided by his party's decisions without a fuss. He said that it were certain things that Oommen Chandy said and did that made him refuse a cabinet post in 2011. 

But Chennithala, in a complete break from Congress tradition, resisted a politician's normal tendency to remain a constant thorn in the government's flesh  "I had never caused any trouble for the Chandy government. I attended the swearing-in. A K Antony had refused to attend the swearing-in of the Karunakaran Ministry because V M Sudheeran was not inducted in the cabinet," Chennithala said. Chennithala also revealed that Chandy had confided to him later, while in sick bed, that he would have recommended only his name as CM if the party had won in 2021.

Though he considers himself qualified, Chennithala did not come across as too eager to get the CM's chair. Here is how he responded to the perceived jostle for the top position in his party were the UDF to come to power. "The Congress High Command had told us (him, V D Satheesan and K C Venugopal) to win the elections and bring the Congress back to power," he said.

It also sounded as if he could take it in his stride if he was denied the top job. "This party has given me so many things. I will abide by whatever my party says," he said.

For instance, in 1986, when he was made minister for the first time, it was an honour that should have gone to his senior, G Karthikeyan. "I myself wanted Karthikeyan to be made minister. Karunakaran rejected Karthikeyan's name as he had hurled allegations against M P Gangadharan (a Karunakaran group leader). Leader felt that Karthikeyan's induction would hurt Gangadharan. But leader had Thennala Balakrishna Pillai's name in mind. Finally, it was Rajiv Gandhi's intervention that saw the post coming my way," Chennithala said.

If luck was with him then, in the long run, Chennithala saw many of his juniors and proteges - Mamata Banerjee, Ashok Chavan and Kiran Kumar Reddy - becoming chief ministers. 

Chennithala is not disheartened. He holds close to his heart a piece of advice from former president Shankar Dayal Sharma: "You should have patience in politics".