Congress’s Palakkad problem | Powertrip #140

Welcome to this week’s Powertrip, a political newsletter exclusively curated for TNM and NL subscribers. This week’s edition is by Dhanya Rajendran, Shabbir Ahmed, Pooja Prasanna, and Binu Karunakaran.For our first story, we spoke to senior Congress leaders about the alternative candidates they are exploring in Palakkad after the exit of Rahul Mamkootathil. It appears that the party has very few viable options, as former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan’s candidature may or may not work out.When KC Venugopal met Tamil Nadu CM Stalin recently, we learnt that he handed over a sealed envelope with a message from Sonia Gandhi explaining why the Congress wanted two Rajya Sabha seats from the DMK.A pre-poll survey conducted by the CPI(M) in Tamil Nadu has thrown up some surprising details about voters vis-à-vis the new political entrant, TVK.Keen to shed its “anti-development” image, the Left government in Kerala has been using the Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) as the primary vehicle for its publicity.Read the full newsletter for all the details. For those who can’t access the full newsletter, get a subscription and read every Tuesday..Inside TrackExclusive stories, for your eyes only.Who will make the cut in Palakkad?The Congress has a Palakkad problem. The party moved popular former MLA Shafi Parambil to the Lok Sabha and brought in Youth Congress leader Rahul Mamkootathil as his successor. But with three rape cases registered against him, Rahul was expelled from the party, leaving the constituency in flux.The Congress has since been exploring alternatives, including former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan, who grew up in Palakkad and resigned from the civil service in 2019. Reports filed a few months ago noted that despite his resignation more than six years ago, the Union government had still not formally accepted it. This technicality means that though the Congress is keen on fielding Kannan, he may not be legally eligible to contest.That leaves the Congress with few options. Within Palakkad Congress circles, one theory doing the rounds is that the party could field a “dummy” candidate, allow Rahul to win as an independent, and bring him back later if his name is cleared in the cases. But several senior Congress leaders told TNM that this is wishful thinking. They insist the party is done with Rahul and that reinstatement is not on the table.They also argue that Rahul cannot win Palakkad on his own. The constituency is not his home turf, and without the Congress’s organisational backing – and crucially Shafi Parambil’s support – victory would be unlikely. If Shafi were to help Rahul indirectly, leaders warn, it could jeopardise his own political future..Congress demands two Rajya Sabha seats from DMK; here’s whyThe February 22 meeting between MK Stalin and Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal was dubbed an icebreaker between the two parties. A top DMK source told TNM that it was a “courtesy call” and that nothing was finalised in the meeting.Sources told TNM that the Congress is demanding 41 Assembly seats and two Rajya Sabha seats from the DMK. KC Venugopal is said to have carried a special message from Sonia Gandhi in a sealed envelope explaining why the Congress is insisting on two RS seats.A Congress source told TNM that one of the reasons the party is seeking two Rajya Sabha seats from the DMK is to ensure it has enough strength in the Upper House to secure the Leader of Opposition status. The post is currently held by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.The minimum number of seats required in the Rajya Sabha for Leader of Opposition status is 25 MPs. The Congress has 27 MPs in the Upper House, and four seats have now fallen vacant. Elections have been announced for 37 Rajya Sabha seats that will become vacant in April as the terms of the sitting MPs expire. The elections are scheduled to be held on March 16.The Congress has a plausible path to winning two seats each in Telangana and Chhattisgarh, and one in Himachal Pradesh, but margins are slim. Any surprise cross-voting engineered by the BJP could cost it the numbers needed to retain Leader of Opposition status in the Rajya Sabha – a significant embarrassment. To hedge this risk, the party is seeking two additional seats from the DMK.On February 23, a second meeting between Kanimozhi and AICC in-charge for Tamil Nadu, Girish Chodankar, took place in Chennai. A source told TNM that the meeting was inconclusive..CPI(M) survey and comrades number crunching The Tamil Nadu CPI(M) has conducted a survey in more than 10 constituencies to assess the mood on the ground after Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam’s entry in the state and its impact in their strongholds.The survey was carried out earlier in February, in areas such as Kanniyakumari, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Nagapattinam, Gandarvankottai, Kilvelur, Maduravoyal, Perambur, and other constituencies.Sources said that the sample size was between 400 and 700 in each of these areas. The results revealed that TVK has considerable support in both urban and rural areas. TVK secured 18% vote share in the survey while the DMK’s alliance remains far ahead in terms of numbers.A leader said that what is worrying is the fact that the survey also showed 27% of the respondents were undecided voters, and they could hold the key in the upcoming election.The survey also revealed that TVK is popular among people between the ages of 30 and 40, and that support for the party declines as the age group increases. .A flood of KIIFB adsTune into the YouTube feed of any Malayalam news channel and you are likely to encounter a promotional blitzkrieg for the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB). Several TV channels, including BJP-controlled Janam, have aired content extolling KIIFB’s policies and the projects it has funded, without any disclosure that these were paid government promotions.Unlabelled advertisements, whether for political parties, governments or corporate houses, have increasingly become the norm across media platforms in India. And media executives defend the practice as standard for both private and government-funded promotional content.One channel editor, however, said the money the Kerala government pays for such content is relatively low compared to what other states offer. And because of this, these video packages are poorly produced, never played on the channel but only uploaded on social media handles.In 2024, state Finance Minister KN Balagopal disclosed that KIIFB spent Rs 115 crore on advertisements across print, television, and digital platforms between the 2017-18 and 2023-24 financial years. The spending ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections alone was Rs 44.23 crore, of which Rs 35 crore went to visual media.It is therefore no surprise that the Left government has once again chosen to foreground KIIFB. The party is keen to shed the long-standing perception that it is “anti-development”, and KIIFB functions as the state’s primary vehicle for off-budget financing of large infrastructure projects..Zero HourA political story of public importance.Harsh Mander: Six years after the Delhi riots, the state’s defiant failings.After the communal violence in the national capital, the AAP government and Modi-led Centre denied relief, compensation and justice to the victims..PowermovesTop 5 political storiesTN panel recommends sweeping reforms to balance state-Union relationsAre communal tensions affecting coastal Karnataka’s economy? 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Congress’s Palakkad problem | Powertrip #140

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