Kasaragod: Taking dissent a notch higher, the Kasaragod District Congress Committee (DCC) president himself has come out in the open against the party’s decision to field Sandeep G Varier -- a popular spokesperson with a following of four lakh on Facebook -- in the Trikaripur Assembly constituency, saying the candidate was picked without consulting the district leadership.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, DCC president P K Faisal said the district leadership had informed the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) that a senior leader from the district should be considered for Trikaripur and Udma, two of the five constituencies available to the Congress in Kasaragod district.

Faisal went public with his dissent after consulting with KPCC secretaries from Kasaragod, K Neelakandan, and Hakeem Kunnil. Notably, all three leaders were themselves hopeful of being considered in Udma and Trikaripur.

“Our district committee had taken a clear decision that senior leaders from the district should be considered for seats in Kasaragod. The decision was forwarded to the KPCC. As DCC president, I stand by that decision,” Faisal said.

He said he had conveyed his displeasure to the KPCC. “We are not aware of the process by which Sandeep Varier was selected. There was no discussion with the district leadership,” he said, adding that he was yet to formally take up the matter with KPCC president Sunny Joseph and Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan.
“We will not accept this decision,” he said.

The Congress has not had an MLA from Kasaragod since 1991. The last time the party won seats in the district was in 1987, when K P Kunhikannan and N Manoharan were elected from Udma and Kanhangad.

Of the five constituencies in Kasaragod, Manjeshwar and Kasaragod are held by the Indian Union Muslim League, while Udma, Kanhangad and Trikaripur have remained with the CPM-led Left Democratic Front.

This time, the Congress swapped Kanhangad with Kerala Congress (Joseph) and is contesting Udma and Trikaripur. “The district leadership had clearly asked the party to field local senior leaders in these two seats,” Faisal said.
The central leadership, however, appears to have prioritised winnability over local considerations.

The Varier factor
Sandeep G Varier, a Congress spokesperson from Ottapalam, is a recent entrant to the party. Once a combative BJP spokesperson, he fell out with the party’s state leadership over alleged neglect and joined the Congress just four days ahead of the Palakkad Assembly by-election in November 2024.

At the time, he said he was “embracing the politics of love,” signalling a shift in tone.

The Congress victory in Palakkad, where Rahul Mamkoothathil won, was seen as aiding Varier’s swift rehabilitation within the party. He was soon made a spokesperson and has since emerged as the party's visible media face, sharply attacking both the CPM and the BJP.
However, his candidature in Kasaragod -- far from his home turf -- has triggered resentment among local leaders, who see it as overlooking district leaders in favour of an outsider with a recent past in a rival party.

A fortress hard to breach
Trikaripur is one of the CPM’s most enduring strongholds. Leaders such as E M S Namboodiripad and E K Nayanar have represented the seat. Since 1957, the Congress has won here only once, in 1960. From 1967 onwards, the CPM has held it continuously.

Of the nine local bodies that make up Trikaripur, six are with the CPM-led LDF, leaving three for the UDF. Nileshwar municipality and panchayats such as Cheruvathur, Pilicode and Kayyur-Cheemeni remain CPM bastions. West Eleri has swung both ways and is currently with the Left. The UDF holds Trikaripur and East Eleri panchayats.

Padne shifted to the Left for the first time in 2025, even as the UDF wrested Valiyaparamba from the LDF.
In the 2016 assembly election, CPM’s M Rajagopalan secured 50.93 per cent of the vote and won by 16,959 votes, while the Congress vote share dipped by 3.42 percentage points to 40 per cent. K P Kunhikannan was the Congress candidate.

In 2021, when the UDF ceded the seat to Kerala Congress (Joseph), and the UDF’s vote share fell further to 37.41 per cent, while Rajagopalan -- who is also the CPM’s district secretary -- increased his share to 53.71 per cent and his winning margin to 26,137 votes.

This time, the CPM has fielded V P P Mustafa, a state spokesperson, orator and district secretariat member. Trikaripur is his home constituency.

Despite the odds, the Congress believes the seat is winnable with the “right candidate”. If KPCC’s decision holds, the contest could pit two of the sharper communicators in Kerala politics against each other -- Varier and CPM’s V P P Mustafa.