8-term MP gears up to fight for LS Speaker’s post

Kochi: In 1989, the Adoor parliamentary constituency was seen a significant challenge for the Congress. Spread over parts of Pathanamthitta and Kollam in southern Kerala, the seat had seen the Left win four of five previous electoral contests. That year, the Congress candidate was the 27-year-old Kodikunnil Suresh, a young man who had already spent years working in the organisation, and criss-crossed the constituency with a youthful enthusiasm. He overcame the odds, winning by over 21000 votes. 35 years, and eight terms as member of parliament later, Suresh has become the opposition nominee for Lok Sabha speaker.

In the years after his first electoral victory, the Dalit leader won from Adoor on three more occasions—1991, 1996 and 1999, and four times from Mavelikkara after 2009, which was carved out of Adoor after a delimitation exercise in 2008. He only lost Lok Sabha elections twice, in 1998 and 2004, both from Adoor.

P Rajendra Prasad, Congress Kollam district president who has worked closely with Suresh told HT, “The reason Suresh is able to win so many elections on the trot is because of how he treats his constituents. When people go to his office with memorandums, he does not ignore them. That has a big effect on voters.”

“Even if their requests are not sometimes met, they go back with the feeling that the MP at least heard them and tried to get it done. He is empathetic and that goes a long way with voters,” he said.

In 2012, Suresh was made the union minister of state for labour and employment in the Manmohan Singh led government. Prasad said that Suresh gave an emotional speech in Kunnathur after his elevation, where he spoke of how his mother earned a meagre income as a daily wage worker in agricultural fields, putting together money to bring him up. “He also talked about the caste discrimination he often faced in those days – how at weddings, he and his family would be among the last to eat food after everyone else had eaten. It is those circumstances in life that have shaped him as a person and politician, rising from a student worker to union minister and 8-time MP,” Prasad said.

Before the 2024 elections, while Suresh had conveyed to the party leadership that he wanted to be excused from the elections in order to return to state politics, leaders said that the Congress convinced him to contest once more, worried that there was nobody else that could retain the seat. Suresh acquiesced, and on Wednesday, be the opposition candidate that fights the first election for Speaker in 48 years.