A jinx was finally broken in the general elections of 2014. Actor Innocent’s spectacular victory at Chalakudy was perhaps the first in Kerala for a film star with no political legacy to boast of.
Even when other southern States such as Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh elected popular stars as Chief Ministers, Malayalis preferred to view cinema and politics separately. They loved their stars yes, but perhaps not enough to make them MPs or MLAs just for their stardom.
Even Innocent’s landmark win over P.C. Chacko, then of the Congress, came as an Independent candidate supported by the Left Democratic Front. But his huge popularity as an actor also counted: in the previous elections, Congress candidate K.P. Dhanapalan had won the constituency by a margin of more than 70,000 votes.
Innocent did what the late fellow actor Murali could not. The national award winner had contested from Alappuzha in the 1999 Parliament elections as CPI(M) candidate, but lost to V.M. Sudheeran of the Congress.
Two years later, K.B. Ganesh Kumar, then of the United Democratic Front, won from Pathanapuram in the Assembly elections, and then three more times, but that evidently had to do more with his political legacy — as R. Balakrishna Pillai’s son — than stardom. In the previous Assembly elections, his main opponents were both actors – Jagadeesh (Congress) and Bheeman Raghu (BJP). That year’s elections also saw actor Mukesh winning from Kollam on the CPI(M) ticket. Innocent’s victory seemed to have lent confidence both to cine-stars and political parties.
Joining Mukesh, who is contesting from Kollam again this time, in the fray are his tinsel town colleagues Dharmajan (from Balussery for the Congress), Suresh Gopi (Thrissur, BJP) and Krishnakumar (Thiruvananthapuram, BJP). Besides, playback singer Daleema Jojo, who shot to fame for her voice resembling that of veteran singer S. Janaki, is the CPI(M) candidate for the Aroor seat.
New faces
No previous elections in Kerala have had as many stars as contestants as this time, while some have also joined political parties ahead of the campaign. Devan, who could not make much of a headway after floating his own party, has joined the BJP, while Ramesh Pisharody, who has formed a successful comic act along with Dharmajan, has joined the Congress(I). Before long, Edavela Babu and director Major Ravi, who had been a vocal supporter of the BJP earlier, were spotted at the Congress’s State-wide rally spearheaded by Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala. Actor-scenarist Sreenivasan and director Siddique have joined the advisory board of corporate-backed political party Twenty20, which is now debuting in the Assembly elections.
Kerala has indeed come a long way since the days when the world record-breaking yesteryear star Prem Nazir chose not to contest polls despite joining the Congress. At that time, a senior Congress leader had said: “He is a nice man. But if we field Nazir in a Kerala election campaign, it will backfire on us.”
Three decades on, no political leader is likely to air such a conclusion.
