K. Muraleedharan

K Muraleedaran
MLA
Incumbent
Assumed office 2011
Constituency	Vattiyoorkavu
Prasident Kerala Pradesh congress committee
In office 2001–2004
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 1989-1996–1999-2004
Constituency	Kozhikode
Personal details
Born	(1957-05-14) 14 May 1957 Thrissur, Kerala, India
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Indian National Congress Nationalist Congress Party (2005-2011) Indian National Congress (1980's-2005) (2011-Present)
Parents	K. Karunakaran, Kalyanikutty Amma
Residence	Trivandrum, Thrissur
Alma mater	Mar Ivanios College Kerala Law Academy Law College (B.L.)
Profession	Politician, Lawyer, social worker

Kannoth Muraleedharan (Malayalam: കെ മുരളീധരൻ) (born 14 May 1957) is an Indian National Congress politician from Kerala, the son of eminent congress leader K. Karunakaran. He was elected as member of the Lok Sabha thrice (in 1989, 1991, and 1999) from the Kozhikode constituency,^[1] subsequently leaving the party in 2005.He was elected as the Chairman of KPCC Campaign committee on 19th September 2018.

Personal life

Kannoth Muraleedharan was born to Kannoth Karunakaran and Kannoth Kalyani in Thrissur City, Kerala on 14 May 1957. He has one sister, Padmaja Venugopal, who has also entered politics. Their family hails from Chirakkal near Kannur. After studying for his BA at Mar Ivanios College, Trivandrum, he qualified in law from Kerala Law Academy Law College, Thiruvananthapuram.

He lists his hobbies as films and drama, football and badminton.

The house 'Murali Mandiram' at Thrissur is named after him.^[2][3]

Muraleedharan is married to Jyothi. They have two sons, Kannoth and Sabarinath.^[4]

Political career

Muraleedharan started his political career within the Congress party as a Seva Dal worker. Thereafter, he held the posts of District chairman and State Chief of Kerala Seva Dal.^[2]. He was elected Member of Parliament from the Calicut (Kozhikode) constituency in the General Elections of 1989, winning re-election in 1991. In the 1996 general election, he lost his seat to the Janata Dal candidate M. P. Veerendra Kumar and subsequently failed in his come back attempt in the 1998 election, before regaining the seat in 1999.^[1] Thereafter, he held many posts within the local Kerala Congress Committee (KPCC) including general secretary, Vice-President and later President.

In February 2004, Muraleedharan was appointed Minister of Power in the A. K. Antony Ministry, though he was not a member of the Kerala Legislative Assembly.^[5] He was required to win a seat within six months to continue as the minister but lost the by-election from Wadakkancherry. Subsequently, he resigned in May that year. He is the only state Minister who was never MLA and never faced the legislative assembly.^[6]

In 2005, when the Karunakaran faction of the Indian National Congress party had differences with the party leadership and the United Democratic Front (UDF), some members of the party quit and formed another party named Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) (DIC(K)). They allied with the Left Democratic Front (LDF) for the local panchayat elections of 2005 and had some success.

However, for the Kerala Assembly elections of 2006, DIC(K) made a pact with UDF as LDF declined to make any electoral arrangements with DIC(K). DIC(K) contested in 17 constituencies but managed to get elected only from one seat mostly because of grassroots level cross-voting by Congress. Muralidharan lost the election in Koduvally constituency to P.T.A. Rahim.

With the future of the DIC(K) party untenable, some party members of the DIC(K) returned to the Congress party whilst others, including Karunakaran and Muraleedharan, decided instead to join the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Later, Karunakaran rejoined the Congress party, while his son Muraleedharan opted to stay with the NCP, decrying his father's "betrayal".^[7] Muraleedharan contested the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from the Wayanad constituency under the NCP ticket, but came only in third place, behind the Congress party and the CPI.^[8]

In August 2009, he was expelled from the NCP and sacked as state chief of the party, as he openly expressed his desire to rejoin the Congress party.^[9] He was subsequently refused re-entry into the Congress party, the party leadership stating that the disparaging comments he had made about the party leadership whilst in opposition were too big a barrier to his re-joining.^[9][10] Muraleedharan pledged that he would "wait for any length of time" for the party to change its mind and readmit him, while his father Karunakaran stated that he would take up the matter with the national leadership of the Congress party, if necessary.^[9] He was readmitted to the Congress party in February 2011, and was given a ticket to contest the Assembly election from the Vattiyurkavu Assembly constituency (former Thiruvananthapuram North Constituency). Subsequently, he won his first assembly election after he defeated ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) supported independent candidate Cherian Philip by a margin of over 16,167 votes on 14 May 2011.^[11] He was re-elected for the second time in 2016 defeating Kummanam Rajasekharan of Bharatiya Janata Party by a margin of 7622 votes.

On 2 February 2017, Muraleedharan began an indefinite hunger strike in solidarity with students of the Kerala Law College in their effort to get College principal Lekshmi Nair to resign.^[12] He was elected as the Chairman of KPCC Campaign committee on 19th September 2018.

References