Kottayam: Chandy Oommen, son of late Congress stalwart and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, has successfully defended the party’s seat in Puthuppally which was held by his father for the past 53 years consecutively. The 37-year-old leader, who had the visible edge of a sympathy wave, not only managed to achieve a thumping victory but also scripted history by surpassing the lead of 33,255 received by his late father during the 2011 Kerala assembly polls. He crossed the margin when half the votes were counted and went on leading the bypoll. Congress retained its traditional stronghold, while the ruling CPM failed to make new inroads by clinching it, as the verdict comes a few months ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

When all 13 rounds of votes were counted, Oommen secured a majority of 37,719 votes over his nearest political rival, LDF's Jaick Thomas.

Oommen, who has been an active presence in politics for over 15 years, currently serves as the chairman of the national outreach cell of the Youth Congress. In addition to shadowing his father in and outside the Puthuppally constituency for the past years, Oommen has stayed involved with the party since his college days and has built a reputation for himself as a dignified and composed person. 

The young leader is a member of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) and served as the state secretary of the Youth Congress in 2013. He was also a full-time participant in ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ and accompanied Rahul Gandhi for a distance of around 3,500 km passing through 12 states from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in 150 days. 

Oommen pursued a Bachelor of Arts (Honours Course) at the University of Delhi in 2007 and later did a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) in 2010. He did his master’s in history from St Stephens College, Delhi in 2012. After post-graduation, he successfully completed an LLM in Constitutional and Administrative Law from Christ University, Bangalore in 2016. The leader also did a summer course at the London School of Economics in 2018. 

Chandy Oommen, who has been a practising lawyer since 2016, has also worked as an adjunct faculty at Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, Amity University.