The optics of an entire Congress contingent propping up a BJP-backed administration have proved politically explosive. By Sunday, the Congress leadership had moved into damage-control mode, describing the revolt as an aberration rather than a symptom of organisational decay.
Published Dec 29, 2025 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Dec 29, 2025 | 9:00 AM
The overnight resignation of all eight Congress members and their alignment with the BJP, he said, amounted to what he mockingly termed the ''Thrissur model'' of ''CongRSS'' politics.
Synopsis: The sudden and unexpected resignation of all the Congress’s elected members from the Mattathur grama panchayat in Thrissur district of Kerala on Saturday handed power to the BJP, which had finished a distant third in the recent local body polls. The episode, which took both the LDF and the Congress by surprise, has left the Congress scrambling to contain the fallout.
The Congress in Kerala suffered one of its most startling setbacks in recent years on Saturday, 27 December, when all eight of its elected members in the 24-member Mattathur grama panchayat in Thrissur district resigned from the party.
The decision by councillors Minimol, Sreeja, Suma Antony, Akshay Santhosh, Linto Palliparambil, Siji Rajesh, Sibi Paulose and Noorjahan effectively handed power to the BJP, which had finished a distant third in the recent local body polls with just four members.
Copy of resignation letter
The scale and suddenness of the episode have few parallels in the state’s political history. In the 24-member panchayat, the LDF had emerged as the single largest bloc with 10 members, while the Congress-led UDF held eight seats and the NDA, led by the BJP, had four. Two councillors were Independents.
Under normal circumstances, the LDF, as the largest bloc, was well placed to stake a claim to the presidency, especially with one Independent councillor, Tessi Jose Kallarakkal, who had earlier contested as a Congress rebel, signalling her willingness to extend support.
The overnight defection of all Congress members, however, dramatically altered the arithmetic. Backed by the BJP and the rebel Congress councillors, Kallarakkal was elected panchayat president with 12 votes: eight from the defectors, three from BJP members and her own.
Though one BJP vote was declared invalid, the numbers were enough to seal the defeat of the LDF-backed Independent candidate, KR Ouseph.
The sudden collapse of the entire Congress bloc and its alignment with the BJP blindsided both the Congress and the Left. The LDF had reportedly been in talks to bring Kallarakkal on board.
In their resignation letters, the former Congress members accused the party leadership of persistently neglecting the mandalam Congress committee and grassroots workers. They claimed their protest stemmed from long-standing organisational grievances rather than any ideological realignment.
Tessi Jose Kallarakkal
Yet the optics of an entire Congress contingent propping up a BJP-backed administration have proved politically explosive.
By Sunday, the Congress leadership had moved into damage-control mode, describing the revolt as an aberration rather than a symptom of organisational decay.
Thrissur DCC President Adv Joseph Tajet announced that disciplinary proceedings had been initiated against all 10 ward members and that legal steps would also be taken under the Kerala Local Authorities (Prohibition of Defection) Act, 1999.
According to Tajet, a clear party whip had been issued ahead of the presidential election, and the members had either defied it or voluntarily left the party, both grounds for disqualification under the law.
Tajet also pushed back against sharp criticism from the CPI(M), accusing the Left of double standards and pointing to what he described as its failure to act decisively in a similar defection episode in Chelakkara.
The CPI(M) has seized the moment to mount a blistering attack.
KV Abdul Khader, Secretary of the CPI(M) Thrissur district committee, described the mass defection as a “premeditated and well-planned move” carried out with the full knowledge of the Congress leadership.
DCC president Adv. Joseph Tajet
He accused the Congress representatives of betraying not only their party but also the voters who elected them, alleging that the party was increasingly comfortable collaborating with “communal and fascist forces”.
Khader also drew a parallel between the episode and similar events in places such as Vadakara and Beypore, which the Left has often cited as examples of opportunistic alliances involving the Congress.
The disciplinary action announced by the Congress, he argued, was little more than a cosmetic exercise intended to placate public opinion.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan termed the episode a dangerous national pattern of Congress legislators joining hands with the BJP to secure power.
“This politics of turncoats directly strengthens the Sangh Parivar’s project by normalising defections and eroding democratic mandates. Such conduct, seen earlier in Arunachal, Goa and Puducherry, fuels the BJP’s ambitions in Kerala. The Congress leadership must respond clearly to this dangerous drift,” he wrote in a post on X.
What happened in Mattathur Panchayat in Kerala yesterday reveals a vicious trend: Congress members joining hands with the BJP to seize power. This politics of turncoats directly strengthens the Sangh Parivar’s project by normalising defections and eroding democratic mandates.…
— Pinarayi Vijayan (@pinarayivijayan) December 28, 2025
CPI(M) state committee member VP Sanu similarly mocked the episode as the “Thrissur model” of “CongRSS” politics.
VD Satheesan.
Congress Opposition Leader VD Satheesan, however, sought to draw a distinction between defying the party and formally joining the BJP.
He maintained that the members had disobeyed the Congress leadership but had not crossed over to the BJP, accusing the Chief Minister of deliberately misrepresenting the situation to suit a political narrative.
Kerala has long prided itself on ideological clarity and stable party loyalties. Yet at the grassroots, personal equations, factional rivalries and transactional alliances often trump everything else.
For the Congress, the episode has been particularly damaging, calling into question its credibility as the principal opposition to both the LDF and the BJP.
Even if the defectors are eventually disqualified, the political damage, especially the perception of organisational drift, may prove harder to undo.
While the Left has effectively weaponised the episode to hammer home its argument that the Congress is an unreliable bulwark against the BJP, it would be equally dangerous for it to fail to draw lessons from it.
For the saffron party, the episode once again shows the effectiveness of its “Operation Lotus” strategy, one that has delivered enormous dividends across the country.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
