Kasaragod's Pullur-Periya panchayat to be run by CPM & Congress after split verdict, draw of lots, invalid vote
The CPM won the president's post, and the Congress won the vice-president's post.
The CPM won the president's post, and the Congress won the vice-president's post.
The CPM won the president's post, and the Congress won the vice-president's post.
Kasaragod: Pullur-Periya grama panchayat -- etched into Kerala’s political memory by the brutal 2019 murder of Youth Congress workers Kripesh and Sarath Lal -- will now be governed by the CPM and the Congress, not as allies but through an uneasy, numbers-driven collaboration. The CPM won the president's post, and the Congress won the vice-president's post. In 2020-2025, the Congress-led UDF controlled the panchayat.
In 2025, the panchayat, with a 19-member board, returned an even verdict, with the CPM-led LDF and the Congress-led UDF winning nine wards each, while the BJP retained its lone Vishnumangalam ward. With no side commanding a majority, both the president’s and vice-president’s posts were decided amid high drama that started on Saturday.
In the election to the president’s post held on Monday, December 29, the LDF and the UDF secured nine votes each. The lone BJP member A Santhosh Kumar abstained, forcing the returning officer to decide the outcome by drawing lots. The draw favoured the LDF, and CPM’s Dr C K Sabitha, elected from Ambalathara ward, was declared president. The UDF's candidate was Usha N Nair from Periya ward.
The vice-president’s election held in the afternoon tilted the balance the other way. Congress candidate Adv M K Baburajan, elected from Kalliyot ward, won after a CPM member’s vote was declared invalid. He was pitted against CPM veteran A Narayanan from Kellot ward. He lost after Nalini V K, the CPM member from Thattummal ward, failed to sign and write her name on the reverse of the ballot paper, rendering it invalid.
Baburajan’s win carries political weight. He hails from Kalliyot, the village where CPM workers hacked to death Kripesh and Sarath Lal in February 2019. As a lawyer and local leader, Baburajan had played an active role in pursuing the case that led to the conviction of 10 CPM workers and grassroots leaders. As the vice-president, he would be heading the finance standing committee of the panchayat.
The elections were originally scheduled for Saturday, but had to be postponed after the Congress failed to finalise its candidates. Deep divisions surfaced within the party, with one faction backing Karthyani A, vice-president in the previous governing body, for the president’s post, while another pushed for Usha M Nair, a first-time panchayat member. For vice-president, the leadership favoured Baburajan, while the rival camp wanted Ratheesh R, a young tribal leader.
On Sunday, KPCC representative and Irikkur MLA Sajeev Joseph intervened, brokering a compromise. The Congress decided that Usha M Nair and Baburajan would be its candidates for the first two years, while Karthyani and Ratheesh would be considered for the president’s and vice-president’s posts in the remaining three years of the term.
Despite Monday's wins and losses, the UDF is not planning to work with the LDF for long. A Congress member said the UDF would move a no-confidence motion against the president after six months. Asked whether the front planned to keep testing its luck every six months, the member said “arrangements” would be worked out after the Assembly election. His cryptic remark harked back to the 2010-2015 term, when the UDF and the LDF were tied at eight wards each, and the UDF controlled the panchayat with the backing of the lone BJP member.