K C Venugopal: The Congress whisperer

Which means that in the mudslinging in the party post another electoral loss, much of the dirt is also directed at the 59-year-old, who is accused of controlling access to the de facto Congress supreme leader.

For Venugopal (or K C as he is called in the party circles), once considered part of the “reformist” young brigade of the Congress in Kerala, seeking to rid it from control of veterans K Karunakaran and A K Antony, it is quite a U-turn — and quite some rise.

Party watchers though are not surprised about either.

It was in 1991 that Venugopal first came to limelight when Karunakaran, the then Kerala Chief Minister and his mentor, got him a Lok Sabha ticket from Kasaragod. Just 28 at the time and president of the party student wing, Venugopal had lost narrowly.

By 1995, he had gone against Karunakaran publicly over the decision of then Congress president and prime minister P V Narasimha Rao to suspend Arjun Singh from the primary membership of the party. In openly backing Singh, Venugopal had taken a stand different from Karunakaran, who was aligned with Rao and had his patronage, but who was facing increasing pushback from many of his supporters in the state.

By the time Karunakaran made way for A K Antony as CM in the March of 1995, Venugopal had moved further away, as part of a band of young “third group” leaders. The group, led by Ramesh Chennithala,
G Karthikeyan and M I Shanavas, saw themselves as reformists or correctionists (Thiruthalvaadi in Malayalam), fighting dominance of Karunakaran and Antony.

Venugopal first became an MLA in 1996, re-winning in 2001 and 2006. In 2004, he became a minister in the Oommen Chandy government. By 2009, he was a Lok Sabha MP, and in another two years, a Union minister of state, the post seen as a placatory gesture towards his Nair community. In 2014, when the Congress was decimated across the country, Venugopal was among the handful of MPs who won, from Kerala, and was made the party’s whip.

Now, he is a Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan. And as the Congress finds itself in the throes of one of its worst internal crises, unable to fend off successive poll defeats, and provoking calls for reform from a rebellious G-23, it is Venugopal who courtesy his position finds himself on the other side.

In another parallel, while he was the party’s Kerala student union president in 1987-1992, Manish Tewari, one of the G-23 members now, was the national NSUI chief.

A student activist while still in school, a volleyball player in college, a post-graduate in mathematics, and a leader who has risen from the violent politics of Kannur, Venugopal has shown dexterity not just in political calculations but also choosing sides well. He knows loyalty has a premium in the family-controlled party, and those close to him say he has demonstrated that amply by willing to take the rap for the leadership.

Muck like Ahmed Patel, who had a pulse on politics knowing everyone within the party and without, Venugopal is also said to have given enough proof of his political acumen. His confidants say he convinced Rahul to fight a second seat in Kerala in the 2019 elections (from where he won, losing pocketborough Amethi), as he had read the political wind in Uttar Pradesh correctly.

If his detractors say just the opposite —that Rahul’s decision to fight from the Muslim-dominated Wayanad actually contributed to his own and the Congress’s loss in the Hindi heartland — it hasn’t made a difference to Venugopal’s rise.

Nor have allegations of involvement in the Kerala solar scam case. In 2018, the Crime Branch had booked him following allegations of sexual misconduct.

As Congress president, Rahul had picked Venugopal as AICC general secretary in-charge of organisation to succeed Ashok Gehlot, who was moving to Rajasthan as CM. His appointment surprised everyone, particularly the old guard, as Venugopal was hardly of the league of Gehlot, who had national organisational experience having been AICC general secretary many times, and equations with party leaders across the country.

Rahul was seen as seeking a person with “fresh ideas”, who was not a part of the Akbar Road coterie and hence could not be easily influenced. He was also seen as sending a message to Patel, a parallel power centre.

In the three years since, Venugopal has moved into key roles in the decision-making apparatus of the Congress. Unlike his predecessors, whose role was largely ceremonial given the towering presence of Patel, Venugopal sits in on all important meetings. For instance, he was present when G-23 leader Bhupinder Hooda met Rahul last week.

His choices include several “lightweights” considered close to him as AICC in-charges. His supporters say they were essential as the party needs new blood.

And it’s not just Delhi where Venugopal is seen as being in the thick of action. Party leaders also see his hand in the churning in the Congress in his home state Kerala, including in the latest decision to give the Rajya Sabha ticket to state Mahila Congress president Jebi Mather, against the wishes of state Congress president K Sudhakaran and many others.

While once close to Chennithala and also in the not-so-bad books of Antony — who are said to have both backed him in Delhi —Venugopal’s ties with the state leadership are now strained.

But if lack of a network was once one of Venugopal’s pluses, it is also hurting the Congress now in Delhi. As the party desperately needs friends, Venugopal may be a hurdle: still figuring his way around the treacherous 24, Akbar Road, politics, hampered by lack of fluency in Hindi, and yet to win over titans of other parties who see him as not big enough in stature.