TP Chandrasekharan, KK Rema
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YEAR-WISE DEVELOPMENTS
2021
Disney Tom, May 7, 2021: The Times of India
On the night of May 4, 2012, just after 10 pm, TP Chandrasekharan, head of the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP), was on the road when he was chased down by a group of assailants in an SUV. After knocking his bike over at the Vallikadu junction near Vadakara in Kozhikode, the killers hacked him to death. TP died on the spot, succumbing to over 51 deep cuts. His murder even today remains one of the most chilling political killings of Kerala in which several CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) activists were later convicted.
On Sunday, nine years and two days to the day her husband’s murder, KK Rema, TP’s wife, delivered her revenge via the ballot, defeating the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in its stronghold of Vadakara. Until now, this constituency has never elected a non-Left representative. Rema, who contested with the support of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), defeated LDF’s Manayath Chandran of Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) by a margin of 7,491 votes to become the first-ever MLA of RMP, an outfit floated by rebel CPI-M activists, led by TP.
Rema’s success was in her ability to appeal to a cross-section of society, especially women voters, cutting across party lines. She even secured votes from CPI-M loyalists. According to her, TP always stood for a people-centric alternative politics and the late comrade’s voice would reverberate in the campaign through her.
“We have to bring an end to the politics of silencing dissent through murder,” Rema told TOI. “Everyone should be able to speak, practise politics and live openly and freely. Thinking that another person does not have the right to exist in an area where a political party has a strong influence, and hacking people to death because of it, should not be allowed, no matter what.” His murder, she said, continues to haunt and baffle her. “Didn’t he have the right to live?”
It was in 2008 that TP floated RMP in Onchiyam, a Left fortress, which was famous for the martyrdom of 10 communists at the hands of the local police on April 30, 1948. The move to form a new party followed outrage among the local party cadres about the contentious agreement between CPI-M and Janata Dal – the communists and the socialists – to exchange the presidencies of Ernamala and Azhiyoor panchayats. TP wounded their pride. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, he contested and secured over 21,000 votes, defeating CPI-M’s sitting MP, P Sathidevi of the CPM, even though Mullappally Ramachandran of Congress won the seat.
The influence of RMP became so strong that LDF has not been able to win the Vadakara Lok Sabha seat since it came to being.
Later in the local body elections in 2010, CPI-M also got rooted out in the panchayats of Onchiyam, Eranmala and Azhiyur. Defeats like these in the red soil of Vadakara came as a crushing blow to the party.
TP was also a staunch supporter of VS Achuthanandan, the former Chief Minister of Kerala, who was constantly locking horns with the official leadership of the CPI-M, led by now CM Pinarayi Vijayan. According to KS Hariharan, a senior journalist and RMP leader, TP’s murder became such a thorny issue for CPI-M that it couldn’t even justify the act to its own cadres. “The fact that a person was killed for dissent, and that too a communist, made several CPI-M activists question their party,” said Hariharan. “The problems started because of the affinity towards the VS group, and VS Achuthanandan’s stand after the murder too put the party in a tough situation.”
And while VS Achuthanandan hailed TP as a brave communist, Vijayan chose to indirectly refer to him as a ‘kulamkuthi’ (traitor), all the while claiming that the party had nothing to do with the killing.
Hariharan said that TP was always expecting an attack on him. “He used to travel alone in his bike so that, if at all an attack would take place, the person accompanying him would not sustain any harm. We planned to arrange a jeep for his travel, but he refused, saying that if the leader shows signs of fear, then the cadres would not be confident,” he said. “In his last speech on April 30, TP had said that any one of us could fall in this fight, and when whoever falls, the others should take up that flag and go forward with it.”
Hariharan added that many in Kerala, especially in Kannur, have become victims of political violence and many families have got orphaned due to this.
“Most families of martyrs continue to suffer in silence. Rema, however, didn’t do that,” he said. “She took a clear stand that she would stand by with the politics of her husband and went forward with it. It might be the first time, when a wife of the martyr to political violence in Kerala, has taken such a stand.”
RMP state secretary N Venu said that Pinarayi Vijayan will surely be disturbed by the fact that a victim of a political killing is now headed to the state Assembly.
“Pinarayi responded to TP Chandrasekharan’s murder with the foulest language,” said Venu. “He gifted the Keralite society with the word ‘kulamkuthi’. The Left government even supported those accused in the murder. So, when the victim herself will question this in the Assembly, it will surely be uncomfortable. This could also be the reason why Pinarayi Vijayan himself campaigned in Vadakara.”
Rema said CM Vijayan’s remarks, following the death of her husband, have left a deep wound, which is yet to heal.
“The truth about TP’s spilt blood is coming out now,” she said. “They [CPI-M] might have secured a big victory and he [Pinarayi] may be being lauded for being the captain. But we actually need a captain with a conscience.”
Apart from the pro-Left wave, which saw the re-election of LDF, and a staunch campaign against her by the Left, led by Vijayan, Rema also had to face even three namesakes like Rama Kuniyil, KTK Rama Padannayil, Rema Cheriyakayyil.
She was able to secure 47.6 per cent votes while the LDF candidate could get only 42.1 per cent of the 1,36,673 votes polled. The election also saw a drop in BJP’s voteshare from 10.7 per cent to 7.4 per cent, which RMP said was due to LDF swinging the BJP votes their way, while LDF alleged that it was proof of Rema getting BJP votes.
Venu said the victory in Vadakara is a huge shot in the arm for RMP as well. “Firstly, people have recognised our campaign against political violence,” he said. “RMP held a campaign against CPI-M’s fascist politics by joining with other democratic forces in the state. This recognition will help us take our fight to the Assembly.”
Rema’s spirited fight through the nine years after her husband’s death is indeed commendable. “My strength and energy, in my public as well as private life, is Comrade TP. The politics that he imparted in all of us and his energy is still with me,” she said. “The wound that his murder has inflicted upon me motivates me to fight every day. I think more women should show the courage now to come forward and fight against such violent politics. The support of our party cadres helped me a lot to keep moving forward. The love that the people of Vadakara have given me is a big responsibility now and I will try my best to do justice to that by representing them as a legislator.”
