Thiruvananthapuram, February 5: A special event was held at the Congress party‘s Kerala headquarters on Wednesday to celebrate the 63rd birthday of KC Venugopal, the party’s organizational general secretary.
Despite Venugopal’s absence, many prominent central and state-level Congress leaders attended the cake-cutting ceremony. This gathering highlighted not only Venugopal’s influence within the party but also celebrated his nearly five-decade-long political journey in public life.
Key attendees included Madhusudan Mistry, chairman of the Congress Screening Committee; Suni Joseph, state Congress president; VD Satishan, leader of the opposition in the assembly; Ramesh Chennithala, member of the Congress Working Committee; Deepa Dasmunshi, Congress general secretary; and senior members of the screening committee and state unit executive. Their presence elevated the event from a mere birthday celebration to a significant political statement.
KC Venugopal’s political rise has been neither sudden nor coincidental. Emerging from student Politics, he began his political career with the Kerala Students Union and later led both the KSU and the Indian Youth Congress at the state level.
His organizational skills became evident when he entered the Kerala Assembly from Alappuzha in 1996, retaining his seat in 2001 and 2006. Serving as the Minister of Devaswom and Tourism in the Oommen Chandy government from 2004 to 2006, he also established his administrative credentials.
Venugopal made his entry into national politics by winning the Alappuzha Lok Sabha seat in 2009. He served as a minister of state in the second UPA government from 2011 to 2014.
Although he was out of Parliament in the 2019 general elections, and the Congress lost the Alappuzha seat to CPI(M), his stature within the party grew stronger. His election to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan in 2020 and subsequent appointment as organizational general secretary positioned him at the forefront of Congress’s revival efforts. His return to Parliament in 2024 and third victory from Alappuzha completed a full circle in his political career.
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