Congress Maha Panchayat begins in Kochi amid community leaders' taunts at Satheesan

Kochi: The Congress leadership in the state converged in Kochi today for a massive show of strength at the Maha Panchayat, an event designed to celebrate the party's resurgence in the recent local body polls. With the Opposition Leader in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, set to address over 15,000 Congress workers at Marine Drive, the mood is one of celebration mixed with intense strategic planning for the future.

However, as leaders arrived in the city for the convention, the political atmosphere outside the venue heated up significantly. A brewing controversy over remarks by State Minister Saji Cherian and SNDP General Secretary Vellappally Natesan has dominated the media interactions on the sidelines, adding a layer of sharp political friction to the day’s proceedings.

The celebrations at Marine Drive have been overshadowed by a verbal confrontation that began over the weekend. The tension was triggered by Minister Saji Cherian’s suggestion that one needs to “read the list of winners in Malappuram and Kasaragod” to understand the state's communal polarisation, a remark the Congress views as an attempt to brand their grassroots victory as communally skewed.

This was compounded by SNDP Yogam General Secretary Vellappally Natesan, who launched a scathing attack on Opposition Leader VD Satheesan on Saturday. Natesan had dismissed Satheesan as a political novice, likening him to “a flower that bloomed only yesterday” and blaming the Muslim League for driving a wedge between community organisations like SNDP and NSS.

Taking advantage of their gathering in Kochi, the Congress top brass turned their pre-event briefings into a coordinated counter-offensive, accusing the CPM of orchestrating these narratives to divide the electorate.

Satheesan arrived in Kochi in a combative mood. Refusing to be baited by the personal jibes or the pressure from community leaders, he framed his stance as an uncompromising defence of secular values.

“They are throwing a burning torch into the hands of those waiting for a spark to ignite communalism,” Satheesan told the media. In an emotional rebuttal, he declared he would not dilute his position for political survival. “Even if I fight communalism and fall defeated, it will be a heroic death; I won't go down for nothing,” he said, adding that staying silent would be a disservice to his role.

Senior leader K Muraleedharan escalated the attack by providing a strategic dimension to the controversy. Speaking in Aluva, he branded the CPI(M) as the “B-Team of the Sangh Parivar,” arguing that the ruling party’s behaviour betrays a secret understanding with the BJP.

Muraleedharan cited the Left’s “inconsistent” reactions to defections as the primary evidence. He pointed out that when Aisha Potty joined the Congress, the entire CPM leadership issued swift condemnations. “Yet, when S Rajendran, who was a CPM MLA for 15 years, defected to the BJP, no one uttered a word,” Muraleedharan said. He argued that this silence, combined with Saji Cherian’s rhetoric, proves the CPM is adopting the Sangh Parivar’s agenda to weaken the Congress.

Senior leader Ramesh Chennithala directed his fire at the top, placing the blame squarely on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Chennithala alleged that the divisive statements were not accidental but a script orchestrated by the Chief Minister to create religious fissures ahead of the Assembly polls.

“The CPM is throwing ideology to the wind to fan the flames of religious division,” Chennithala said. Accusing the CM of supporting the communal polarisation, Chennithala asserted that the Congress will not tolerate the CPM's attempt to play the “communal card” to hang on to power.

The intense political crossfire has transformed the nature of the Maha Panchayat itself, which was conceived to felicitate the 8,000+ Congress candidates who secured victory in the local body polls, recapturing key corporations like Kochi and Thrissur with a 38.8% vote share.