Aisha Potty’s entry into the Congress is especially significant with just months to go before the 2026 Assembly polls. Her move arms the UDF with a credible challenger in Kottarakkara, a seat currently held by Finance Minister KN Balagopal.
Published Jan 13, 2026 | 6:51 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 13, 2026 | 6:52 PM
In 2006, Aisha Potty stunned the establishment by defeating Balakrishna Pillai, then widely seen as synonymous with Kottarakkara.
Synopsis: The Congress inducted former Kottarakkara CPI(M) MLA P Aisha Potty on 13 January in a major coup ahead of the high-stakes 2026 Assembly elections. A three-time legislator known for past “giant-killing” victories, Potty gives the UDF a credible challenger against the LDF in the constituency. Her switch follows years of estrangement from the CPI(M) and has drawn a backlash from the party, which termed it a “class betrayal”.
The Kerala unit of Congress pulled off a significant coup on Tuesday, 13 January, inducting former Kottarakkara CPI(M) MLA P Aisha Potty into the party. A three-time legislator, Potty is best known for her “giant-killing” victory over Kerala Congress (B) leader R Balakrishna Pillai.
Her move arms the UDF with a credible challenger in Kottarakkara, a seat currently held by Finance Minister KN Balagopal, whom the CPI(M) fielded in 2021 after denying Potty a ticket.
Aisha Potty with Congress leaders on 13 January at Thiruvananthapuram
After months of speculation that she might cross over, Potty arrived on Tuesday at the KPCC’s day-and-night protest outside the Lok Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram and formally accepted Congress membership from KPCC President Sunny Joseph, ending the uncertainty over her political future.
Leader of the Opposition VD Satheesan confirmed her induction with a video message, calling it another step in the Congress’s expanding political footprint.
“Many comrades will be angry with me. I will have to face criticism,” Potty said, sharing the dais with senior Congress leaders, including AICC General Secretaries KC Venugopal and Deepa Das Munshi.
Aisha Potty’s entry into the Congress is especially significant with just months to go before the 2026 Assembly polls.
In 2006, she stunned the establishment by defeating Balakrishna Pillai, then widely seen as synonymous with Kottarakkara after dominating the constituency uninterrupted from 1977 to 2001. Her victory, by a margin of 12,087 votes, jolted Pillai into retirement.
R Balakrishna Pillai
In 2011, she increased her margin to 20,592 votes and continued her streak in 2016 with a landslide victory by 42,632 votes. The three consecutive wins turned her into a mass leader with acceptance cutting across party lines.
For the Congress, her induction is widely viewed as a potential game changer. Party strategists believe Kottarakkara, a constituency where Potty commands goodwill across political affiliations, can be reclaimed if she is fielded.
Such a contest would pit her directly against Balagopal, turning the race into a high-profile political battle and giving the UDF a formidable trump card.
Though Potty has publicly downplayed talk of her candidature, Congress leaders privately admit that her name is very much on the shortlist.
After her emphatic third victory in 2016, Potty was widely tipped as a potential Speaker of the Kerala Assembly. Instead, she was denied a ticket in the 2021 Assembly polls as part of the CPI(M)’s “new faces” experiment.
Though Balagopal went on to win, his margin was far slimmer, at just 10,814 votes.
When the LDF returned to power, Potty was also seen as a strong contender for the chairpersonship of the Kerala Women’s Commission. That, too, did not materialise.
Aisha Potty and K N Balagopal during 2021 Assembly polls
In 2024, she was dropped from the CPI(M)’s Kottarakkara area committee, allegedly for distancing herself from party activities after her term as MLA ended.
For months, rumours of Potty’s political retirement swirled, and in 2024 she herself said she was stepping away from active politics. However, her appearance at Veteran Congress leader and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s memorial programme in July 2025 reignited speculation.
“Only when I attend do they campaign as if it is driven by a lust for power,” she said at the time, responding to criticism. “I am someone who gave up everything and went into the legal profession.”
On the Congress stage on Tuesday, her tone was much more defensive.
“I am not power-hungry. If we feel we are not needed, it is better to leave,” she said, adding that while the movement had given her much, “some people in the leadership” had troubled her for a long time.
Senior CPI(M) Leader and Former Minister J Mercykutty Amma branded Potty’s defection a “class betrayal”, saying that a “desire for position can degrade a person politically”.
She rejected allegations that the CPI(M) had neglected or marginalised Potty, and asserted that the Kollam district unit and the party as a whole had “nurtured” her and given her opportunities far beyond what many cadres receive in a lifetime.
A Congress poster welcoming Aisha Potty
“Aisha Potty rose entirely through the party—district panchayat president, three-term MLA, district committee member, leadership roles in the women’s organisation. She was given everything,” Amma told the media. “There was no political situation in Kollam that forced her to leave.”
The former minister said it was ironic that Potty had acknowledged her move would be branded a class betrayal and then gone ahead with it.
“When she herself says her comrades will call this a class betrayal, doesn’t that mean she knows what she has done?” Amma asked.
Questioning Potty’s claim of representing all sections of society, Amma asked how joining the Congress advanced that cause.
“What struggles of the common people has the Congress stood with?” she said.
“On one hand she says she doesn’t want any position; on the other, she speaks of contesting again. Isn’t that greed for position?” Amma said.
She said the party would not organise protests against Potty and that the district unit was strong enough to weather the “betrayal”.
“The Left government in Kerala remains the only real alternative in the country. Any move against that alternative is a betrayal of workers, farmers and the people,” she added.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
