In the 1984 parliament elections, late Congress leader K Karunakaran decided to go for an experiment in Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency. He decided to pitch A Charles, a member of the Nadar community with no political background, against A Neelalohithadasa Nadar of LDF. To everyone's surprise, Charles won. What turned out to be the biggest embarrassment for LDF, especially for CPM supremo EMS Namboodiripad, was not the failure of its candidate but the fact that Kerala Varma Raja who contested under the banner of Hindu Munnani secured 19.80 percent of the polled votes.
“EMS was very shocked that Hindu Munnani candidate got so many votes. In the erstwhile Thiruvananthapuram East assembly constituency, a section of which is now part of Nemom assembly constituency, Rama Varma Raja came second pushing Neelalohithadasa Nadar to third position. The main campaigner and helmsman for Raja’s election was none other than Kummanam Rajasekharan,” recalls Jacob George, political observer. By then, Kummanam had attracted attention through his key role in the Nilackal protests against a Christian sect setting up a church close to the base camp of Sabarimala.
But more importantly, the Nemom result set in motion a chain of extremely significant events within CPM. “EMS was very upset with the increased vote share of Hindu Munnani candidate. He found that it was the growth of Muslim communalism promoted by certain political parties that became the catalyst for the growth of Hindu communalism", says Jacob.
EMS argued that no communal parties should be there in LDF. But, CPM strongman and popular leader MV Raghavan strongly stood for expanding the LDF by including Kerala Congress (M) and Muslim League. MVR presented an alternative policy document at the state conference demanding that LDF should be expanded by including Kerala Congress (M) and Muslim League. But, EMS made an emotional speech at the meeting and the alternative policy introduced by Raghavan was voted out. Later, this rift grew subsequently leading to the expulsion of Raghavan from CPM.
More than three decades later when Kummanam Rajasekharan contests from Nemom, Muraleedharan, son of K Karunakaran, has been roped in as the UDF candidate. The election to Nemom assembly constituency has become a prestige issue for all three fronts. In 2016, BJP candidate from Nemom K Rajagopal sprung a surprise by opening an account for the party in Kerala assembly. “The increasing mass base of BJP in the state has instilled a sense of insecurity in the minds of secular people as well as minorities. So, both LDF and UDF have to woo the secular voters and minorities,” said N M Pearson, political observer. “The Congress was very fast to sense the damage and give a message that the party is the one which is at the forefront of the fight against BJP in Kerala. The hype regarding Congress fielding a mighty candidate against BJP in Nemom made the constituency a symbol of the political fight in the whole state,” Pearson said.
After more than three decades, as Nemom once again hogs the spotlight, the political alignments reveal that EMS's original ideological position has been reversed. Kerala Congress (M), which EMS wanted to be kept away, joined LDF. Indian National League (INL) with which LDF had been making electoral understanding in the past several years formally joined the LDF fold. RSP joined UDF by snapping decades-long ties with left parties and Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) which had switched over to UDF rejoined LDF. “Now power has replaced all political values. All parties now claim that we are less corrupt or less communal compared to others. There is only quantitative difference not any qualitative distinction,” said J Prabhash, political analyst.