If there’s one party that can give the Kerala Congress a run for its money in the art of serial splits, sudden realignments, and political self-reinvention, it is the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Kerala. Over the past five years, the NCP in the State has behaved like a pressure cooker on a perpetual boil; bursting into three factions, reshuffling loyalties and endlessly recalibrating its place in the political matrix.
The first explosion took place just before the 2021 Assembly elections, when MLA Mani C. Kappen broke away, rebranded himself, and walked straight into the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). The next shockwave hit in 2023, triggered by the Pawar family’s dramatic vertical split in Maharashtra. In Kerala, a rebel faction led by N.A. Muhammad Kutty, already locked in a long-running turf war with State chief P.C. Chacko, declared overnight loyalty to the Ajit Pawar camp. The remaining group stuck with Sharad Pawar.
But what makes the drama even more intriguing is not the split itself, but the ideological elasticity that both sides follow. Both sides maintain that national alliances may dictate loyalties across India, but not in Kerala, which they insist, is a separate arena altogether, demanding its own playbook.
