Painfully weak and confined to a hospital outside the State, Oommen Chandy could neither reach out to his voters nor advice the Congress or the United Democratic Front leadership on political strategies in his final months. Yet, the torrent of grief and tributes that followed his death on Tuesday showed his extraordinary popularity as a leader and his connect with the masses and political leadership.
“He will continue to give Puthuppally a course to steer by even after death,” says Kunjumon Madakkal, a childhood friend of the late leader. The towering presence of Mr. Chandy as the undisputed leader of Puthuppally, according to him, rendered the village an entirely new identity as the centre of political action.
Also read: Oommen Chandy obituary | Puthupally never broke faith with him
The 79-year-old man has vivid memories of the former Chief Minister’s beginning as a student leader. “Having contested as his opponent in an election to the Balajanasakhyam, I soon became one of his followers. For, he was instinctively courteous even to his enemies,” he says.
The politics that Mr. Chandy preached and practised always required the presence of the masses. “Ordinary people, cutting across political and religious affiliations, will pour into his residence at Puthuppally on Sundays without a break. He will hear each of them patiently and initiate follow-up action instantly. He might remain stuck there throughout the day but never complained,” says Mr. Kunjumon.
If politics is all about reaching out to the electorate, it worked just the other way as far as this Congress leader was concerned. At Puthuppally, he will remain so busy throughout the day that he hardly got any time even to campaign for himself. Instead, a well-oiled campaign system run by the Congress will make up for much of his absence there during every election season.
Also read: A Chief Minister who did not say no
Cherian, alias Kunjumon, who served as the personal chauffeur of Mr.Chandy in his early days as a legislator, too remembers the leader as a man who cared for those around him. He also recalls how Mr. Chandy, who was on his way to New Delhi from Kozhikode along with A.K. Antony, cancelled the trip mid-way to attend his wife’s funeral.
“I had left him years before to join the KSRTC but he never ditched me,” the old man could not hold back his tears.
For all his leadership skills, Mr. Chandy encountered several crisis situations in his political career, but the voters of Puthuppally never ditched him for the 53 years he was legislator. Their unqualified love for Mr. Chandy was on ample display in March 2021 when hundreds of people, including women, poured onto the road and staged protests against him reportedly leaving Puthuppally to contest from Nemom. The anger had boiled over to such a point that an emotionally charged supporter, holding a party flag, climbed on the rooftop of Mr. Chandy’s house and threatened to jump off.
And the leader continues to enjoy that support base even after his death, as evident from the huge turnout that his house here – Karottu Vallakkalil – witnessed on Tuesday.
Nibu John, a veteran Congress leader and aide to Mr. Chandy, describes this connection in simple terms. “He embraced Puthuppally and held its people so close to his heart while doing everything for the masses elsewhere out of genuine conviction.”
