P.V. Anvar signals entry of Trinamool Congress into electoral politics in Kerala

P.V. Anvar arriving for a press conference after submitting his resignation as Nilambur MLA in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, on January 13, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Nirmal Harindran

P.V. Anvar, Independent legislator representing the Nilambur Assembly constituency in Malappuram district in Kerala, on Monday (January 13, 2025) signalled that West Bengal’s ruling party, the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), would emerge as a decisive new player in Kerala’s electoral politics. 

In a freewheeling press conference after submitting his resignation to Speaker A.N. Shamseer, Mr. Anvar said the TMC’s national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, MP, had assured him that the party’s top leadership would campaign for the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition in the “upcoming Assembly byelection in Nilambur.”

Mr. Anvar said the TMC had kept the Congress at a distance in West Bengal because of the latter’s proximity to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)]. In contrast, the UDF was the CPI(M)‘s principal political adversary in Kerala.

Mr. Anvar said he would accept TMC membership from West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee once Mr. Shamseer accepted his resignation. He said secular democratic forces disillusioned with the CPI(M) backed the TMC. Mr. Anvar said he would petition the UDF leadership to accommodate the TMC in the Opposition alliance.

Mr. Anvar, who won as Left Democratic Front (LDF) Independent from the Nilambur Assembly constituency twice and acrimoniously broke ranks with the ruling front in 2024, held out an olive branch to the UDF.

Making amends with UDF

He sought to make amends with the UDF by apologising for the “unfounded corruption” allegations he raised against Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan in the Kerala Assembly at “the instance of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s political secretary and CPI(M) leader P. Sasi”.

Mr. Anvar also decried Mr. Vijayan’s alleged bid to portray the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leadership as Islamist.

Mr. Anvar declared that he would not contest from Nilambur in the event of an Assembly byelection. Instead, he made a “request-demand” to the UDF to field a Christian settler-farmer from Nilambur as the Opposition’s candidate. He suggested the name of the District Congress Committee president V.S. Joy. 

Mr. Anvar appeared to forestall the possible candidature of Congress leader Aryadan Shoukath by stating that the latter would not have his backing. “The Christian settler-farmer community is ill-represented in Malabar, though they form a critical electoral block. The UDF has to rectify the anomaly,” he said. 

Mr. Anvar attacked the Kerala Congress (M), an LDF ally, for backing the “anti-settler-farmer” Kerala Forest (Amendment) Bill. “The LDF wants to rid the Western Ghats of settler-farmers. The Bill portrays a predominantly Christian settler-farmer community as encroachers and aspires to accord forest officers with law and order powers to drive out the community already laid low by wild animal attacks on humans and raids on farmlands,” he alleged. 

Mr. Anvar also attempted to drive a wedge in the CPI(M) leadership. He alleged that the party’s top leadership had goaded him to publicly raise accusations against Mr. Vijayan and Mr. Sasi to encourage the rank and file to bring these up during party conferences. However, Mr. Anvar refused to name any particular leader.