Longtime Thrippunithura MLA K Babu, veteran Congress leader, will not contest upcoming election

Kochi: K Babu, the Congress MLA from Thrippunithura, has announced that he will not be contesting in the upcoming assembly elections. Speaking at a press conference with party leaders, Babu said that despite repeated requests from Congress colleagues, he has decided not to participate.

Babu first entered public life through student politics and made his electoral debut in the initial municipal elections in Angamaly. He became the youngest chairman of the Angamaly Municipality in 1979-80, winning the post by a narrow margin of just 60 votes. Although initially hesitant to contest elections, he eventually joined Congress under the guidance of AK Antony and moved into state-level politics.

In 1991, Babu was assigned the Thrippunithura constituency, where he defeated senior CPM leader M.M. Lawrence by 4,946 votes to become an MLA for the first time. Over the years, he went on to win the seat multiple times, defeating Gopi Kottamurikkal of CPM by 14,773 votes in 1996, K. Chandran Pillai by 24,296 votes in 2001, K.N. Raveendranath by 7,342 votes in 2006, and C.M. Dinesh Mani by 15,778 votes in 2011. In 2016, following bar bribery allegations, he lost to M. Swaraj of the CPM, but regained the seat in 2021, once again defeating Swaraj. Altogether, Babu has contested from Thrippunithura seven times, winning six.

During his tenure, he served as the Minister for Excise, Ports, and Fisheries in the UDF government led by Oommen Chandy. Babu is also the Deputy Leader of the Congress Legislative Party in Kerala and a member of the All India Congress Committee. His decision to retire marks the end of a long and influential political career, during which he turned Thrippunithura, traditionally a CPM stronghold, into a repeated electoral victory for Congress.