A zesty Tamilian spirit swept the border panchayats of Aryankavu, Thenmala, Kulathupuzha and the Punalur municipality in Kollam district a day before phase 1 of the local body elections in Kerala. Campaign jeeps wound along misty estate roads blaring bilingual slogans, and announcers switched easily between Tamil and Malayalam, driving home political parties' promises of development to mixed crowds. These areas together host at least 10,000 Tamil-speaking residents. 

In Aryankavu panchayat’s Venture ward (Ward 12), CPI candidate Advocate PB Anilmon straddled both languages as he met voters on Sunday. Nearly 90 per cent of residents in this ward are Tamilians. His Tamil campaign posters stand among many others across Aryankavu’s six Tamil-majority wards: Ambanad East, Ambanad West, Poothottam, Florence, Venture and Nedumpara. The belt includes the rubber plantations of the Harrison Malayalam group and the tea estates of Travancore Rubber and Tea, home to around 2,800 Tamil voters. 

Anilmon’s own story is rooted in the estates. The son of a Malayali estate worker, he studied at T Chacko Nariyarathu Memorial High School in Nedumpara, founded in 1957 for estate workers’ children and still offering Tamil and Malayalam medium instruction. Two decades into politics, he now serves as president of the Aryankavu Cooperative Bank and secretary of the Punalur Bar Association. 

With personal ties and the region’s long political memory, he hopes to help his party retain the panchayat. “The CPI has always stood by them,” he says, recalling the legacy of Comrade POS Spencer and 19-year-old Muthuswamy, who was killed in 1955 while protecting Spencer from estate goons during a rights-awareness meeting. That year, AITUC, the CPI’s trade union wing, formed its first estate workers’ union in Thenmala. 

But times have changed. Estate workers today are more aware of their rights and want better futures for their children. Many from the Tamil community are contesting too. CPI’s candidates in Poothottam and Ambanad, Ponraj and Juli Mani, are both Tamilians.

“The estate workers have come through a lot. With long hours and low wages, many now want their children to study and move into white-collar jobs,” Anilmon says. 

Yet generations later, many children of Tamil workers still struggle with one fundamental issue: caste certificates. SC and ST status in India is linked to the state of origin as defined in the 1950 Presidential Order. Migrants can claim reservation benefits only from their original state, not the state they move to. In October, the Kerala government submitted a detailed proposal to the Centre seeking amendments to ease this hardship for migrant communities. 

Another issue that requires immediate redressal is their housing facilities-the tightly packed layams-provided to estate workers by private management. 

“There is little we can do directly about estate accommodation, but we have improved roads to their layams, provided livestock and tried to address what we can,” says Biju Abraham, UDF ward member in Florence. Aryankavu once a LDF stronghold, was captured by the UDF last time with support from the BJP and an independent.

 In Kulathupuzha, the two wards within the Rehabilitation Rubber Plantation offer a different picture altogether. With a strong AITUC base, it is a stronghold of the CPI. 

Established in the early 1970s to resettle Sri Lankan Tamil families, the settlements have since evolved into close-knit communities where Tamil and Malayalam blend effortlessly in daily life. Today, the two wards together account for an estimated 3,500 to 4,000 Tamil-origin voters, making them a decisive bloc in local politics. 

Their influence was evident in 2020, when their consolidated support helped the LDF take control of the panchayat. In Cherukara and Estate wards, CPI candidates cruised to victory with commanding margins. 

Cherukara ward member and CPI leader Chandrakumar S carries the confidence of someone who has spent decades among the estate’s hills and labour lines.

“We expect an even bigger majority this time because people have seen the development,” he says. “Out of the 97 houses we built under the LIFE mission in the last 5 years, 19 went to families of Tamil origin. After 60 years here, they finally have drinking water. And despite the challenges of cutting a road through forest land, we secured permission and allotted almost ₹1.5 crore from panchayat funds to build roads in the area.” 

Even the long-pending caste certificate issue was resolved after the intervention of former minister K Raju, he added. 

While Chandrakumar is an estate worker himself, there are others from the Tamilian community who are contesting in Kulathupuzha. In RPL Estate Ward 1, the UDF candidate Pushpanadan is a Sri Lankan Tamil, while the LDF candidate Chandrakumari represents the second generation of settlers.

Besides Aryankavu and Kulathupuzha, Nagamala and Mampazhathara estate regions of Thenmala, and parts of Punalur municipality in Kollam are also home to the Tamil community. In Punalur municipality, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has fielded candidates in 9 wards, hoping to tap into the Tamil sensibilities of the population in the area.