On the campaign trail with K.C. Venugopal

From his base in Kerala, K.C. Venugopal directs Parliament strategy in Delhi, connects local fishermen’s concerns to developments in the Strait of Hormuz, and urges voters to unseat Pinarayi Vijayan and choose the Congress as the “real Left” in the State

For K.C. Venugopal, it is work from home in Kerala these days, where he is part of the Congress high command one moment, and the field command in the State the next.

On Wednesday (April 1, 2026) morning, he remotely coordinated the Opposition’s parliamentary strategy to stall the Centre’s proposed changes to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) rules — a hot button issue among Christian churches in the State — before hitting the campaign trail as early as 7 a.m. The 63-year-old led a foot march in Kuttiyadi town in north Kerala, where a Congress worker’s house was attacked recently, allegedly by workers of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Ahead of the upcoming Kerala Assembly election, multiple anti-BJP parties have coalesced into two opposing alliances — the Congress-led United Democratic Front and the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front. KCV, as he is called, has to defend the Congress’s partnership with the Left elsewhere, while maintaining the rivalry in the State.

It is not just regional issues, but also national and even international politics that influence public opinion in Kerala. Mr. Venugopal’s next stop is Koilandy on the Arabian Sea shore, from where the Strait of Hormuz and New Delhi are roughly the same distance. The Jews, the Arabs, and the Europeans landed on these shores for trade millennia ago; just a earshot away along the same beach, Vasco da Gama landed in 1498 and found that the Christian community was already well established in Kerala.

“The Strait of Hormuz is closed because the U.S. and Israel started a completely unjustified war. The Narendra Modi government took the side of the aggressors, and people are paying the price. Fishers need kerosene to run their boats and earn their livelihood,” Mr. Venugopal told a convention in a fishers’ village.

“Fishers are the only people who work without an assured wage. I once went to the high seas with you, and after the entire night all the catch was no more than a handful of mackerel,” he told his audience, introducing the local party candidate who had lost the 2021 election by a whisker. “He will do what it takes to ensure that you are not alone. But let me tell you, this is not an election to elect an MLA; this is an election to unseat [Chief Minister] Pinarayi Vijayan, who is behaving like a king and treating the people as subjects,” he said, quickly pivoting to the core theme of the Congress campaign in the State. “People are fed up of the arrogance, intolerance, and corruption under Pinarayi,” he said.