Keralam's game is on

The Kerala CM is using his time to build a UDF legacy. But for him, life may not be this tranquil forever plain politics

Keralam is football-crazy. So, in 2024, when the state sports minister in the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, V Abdurahiman, announced that he’d done it — Lionel Messi would be coming to play a friendly in the state in 2026 — most expected that Mr V Abdurahiman would win his Assembly seat (Tirur) by a landslide in the 2026 elections. Part of the hard work put in by the minister and his department was a visit to Spain, naturally at public expense. This was inexplicable in itself — the footballer is Argentinian. 

Except that although Mr Messi came to India, he never showed up in Kerala. And Mr Abdurahiman lost his seat by a margin of over 24,000 votes. The money spent on “inviting” the football superstar to Keralam amounted to over ₹200 crore (the state investigative agencies are still adding up the numbers). Most of it travelled abroad, funnelled into dubious companies. 

This and other scams including the affairs of Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd (KMSCL), an arm that holds up the famed medical system in the state, are under investigation by Special Investigation Teams (SITs). In 100 days in office, Chief Minister V D Satheesan has ordered five SITs. This would appear to be some kind of a record. 

Coming to power after two consecutive terms of a Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is using crime and punishment as instruments to undermine the LDF’s credibility. But many more pressing problems, some structural, need to be addressed. 

Mr Satheesan has begun taking some steps towards this. In his revised Budget presented in June, the government announced it would review the state’s land policy, position Keralam as a “port city” economy anchored in maritime growth, and transition away from dependence on remittances via a new investment framework. Free transport to women — quickly becoming a signature Congress welfare measure in states run by the party; a new package for accredited social health activists (ASHA), long seeking equity; and a new Department for Senior Citizens, formed as part of the welfare package. What everyone always knew but never talked about — Keralam’s drug problem — was brought out into the open and Operation Toofan revealed the extent of the synthetic drugs mafia in the state. An astounding 11,700 cases were registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in the first 100 days of the government. Operation Toofan has become a brand that combines police action, high-profile arrests, interstate investigation and political messaging. Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala is leading it after conceding disingenuously that he “never thought that narcotics were a deep-rooted ‘disease’ in our state”. 

Mr Satheesan has a major advantage. No state elections are due in the near future. Local elections were held just before the Assembly polls in May, so that’s over and done with. No by-elections are required. On the electoral front there is nothing to prove. 

The LDF is still licking its wounds after the drubbing it got in the Assembly polls. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would like to assert itself, but is getting limited traction on the ground. The UDF government decided to drop “Vande Mataram” from its Independence Day celebrations. The BJP announced it would sing the song in all Kerala’s 30 districts on August 21. Then everything got muddled because at the flag-hoisting ceremony at the Kozhikode Corporation while Congress and Left councillors sang Jana Gana Man, seven BJP councillors sang Vande Mataram simultaneously. Those singing the national anthem left when it was over. Those singing the national song sang it to the end to empty chairs. It was not an edifying moment.

The Congress in Kerala is a conglomeration of groups. Mr Satheesan belongs to none. That protects him — but also makes him more vulnerable. So far, neither K C Venugopal, who has the ear of the Gandhi family, nor Ramesh Chennithala, who felt he deserved to be chief minister, nor any of the other Congress leaders in the state have made their moves. That has given Mr Satheesan some breathing space. A new chief of the state unit needs to be appointed. That is likely the biggest challenge for him. More than one chief minister has been unseated in the past because he couldn’t get on with the state party chief.

But more than party goals and promises, Mr Satheesan is conscious he has to leave a personal imprimatur on his chief ministership. He is known to be a champion of the environment. Meaningful initiatives on that front are yet to come, whether it is forestry or quarrying. He has also made a conscious effort to reach out to the state’s GenZ in the past. As chief minister, that needs to go beyond tokenism like budgetary allocations for artificial intelligence. 

For the moment, Mr Satheesan is using his time to build a UDF legacy. But for him, life may not be this tranquil forever.