Congress under fire, attempts to deflect heat over Mamkoottathil scandal

The LOP, clearly on the defensive after days of bruising headlines over the sexual harassment allegations against Mamkoottathil, was trying to turn the spotlight elsewhere.

Deflecting public heat

As the Congress navigates the turbulence around Palakkad MLA , the Opposition leader has hinted that “more” is brewing — signalling further action inside his party while also training fire on the CPI(M) and the LDF over their own unresolved cases. He’s framed the moment as a test of consistency: if rivals demand probity from the Congress, they must apply the same standard at home.

Publicly, Satheesan has said additional steps are possible once the party process runs its course and has chastised the LDF and BJP for what he calls selective outrage.

Satheesan was targeting the BJP too, pointing out that its workers had earlier staged a march with a bull to his official residence, in a symbolic protest suggesting that MLA Rahul Mamkoottathil was being treated like a “stud bull” within the party.

‘It would be better for the BJP workers to keep the bull in their office. They will need it soon to take out a march to their president’s house," said the LOP.

Suspended

For now, Rahul Mamkoottathil’s resignation as MLA has not happened. The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) has suspended him from primary membership following multiple misconduct allegations, but its leadership has explicitly ruled out demanding his exit from the Assembly. Several reports suggest that he’ll continue as an MLA, and has been told to stay away from Congress benches in the House.

Also read: Kerala Youth Cong chief Rahul Mamkootathil steps down after actress raises allegations

Mamkoottathil resigned as Youth Congress state president after Rini Ann George, a TV anchor turned small-time actor went public with allegations against a “young politician,” sparking a cascade of similar accounts and street protests by rival youth wings. Congress leaders later announced the suspension, while reiterating that no police complaint had been filed. The party says it will examine all material that has surfaced and won’t be browbeaten by opponents into steps it has not demanded in other cases.

No moral high ground for LDF

Satheesan’s counter-attack has zeroed in on the CPI(M)’s handling of Kollam MLA M Mukesh, against whom a rape case was registered in August 2024 after a woman complainant approached the police.

The case — which Mukesh has denied, and in which the complainant was later arrested by Tamil Nadu police in another sex trade case under the POCSO Act, raising questions about her credibility — remains a political flashpoint as the MLA continues in office. Congress leaders contend that the LDF cannot claim the moral high ground while one of its own legislators faces such allegations.

Congress ledger

But the Congress has its own difficult ledger. Two of its MLAs — M Vincent (Kovalam) and Eldhose Kunnappilly (Perumbavoor) — continue in the Assembly while facing cases related to crimes against women.

Vincent was arrested and sent to prison in 2017 after a woman accused him of rape; he secured bail and won again from Kovalam in 2021. The case originates from 2017 and has shadowed his career ever since. Kunnappilly, elected in 2021, faced allegations of sexually harassing a young teacher in 2022; police filed a chargesheet in 2024, and he remains in office.

Satheesan’s pitch to rivals invites the inevitable mirror test: what is the Congress’s own end-state for MLAs with pending cases when no conviction has been recorded?

Satheesan has also used the moment to revisit past CPI(M) episodes to argue that the ruling party’s moral stance is situational. In 2018, CPI(M) MLA P K Sasi was suspended from party membership for six months after a DYFI woman leader accused him of sexual harassment, an internal inquiry cited “inappropriate conversation,” not assault.

Firm decision

Inside the Congress, there are signs of tension but also of a line being drawn.

Senior leaders have called the suspension a “firm” decision taken without a police case, in contrast with CPM and BJP precedents, they say, with some openly arguing against forcing Mamkoottathil’s resignation. As one strand of opinion pushes for harsher action, the organisational centre has opted for a holding pattern: suspend from party posts, isolate him in the legislature, and continue internal scrutiny.

The effect is to buy time while the facts are sorted and to avoid a by-poll in a seat the party only won in a by-election last November.

All is not well in Congress

However, all is not well within the Congress, with a sizeable section believing that the leadership, particularly Opposition Leader VD Satheesan and MP Shafi Parambil, who had been a mentor to Rahul — slow-pedalled action until the allegations involved Rini Ann George, whom Satheesan has described as a daughter-like figure.

A senior Congress leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Rahul’s behaviour and “sexcapades” had long been an open topic of discussion within the party.

“He had exploited the daughter of a Congress MP under the pretext of marriage and later abandoned her. I hear that the leadership was aware of this, just as they knew about his other relationships that reportedly ended in coerced abortions involving two journalists. If it is true, did the party take any action then? These are heinous crimes, and we cannot simply hide behind the excuse that our rival parties did the same with their leaders,” the leader said pointedly.

On the street, rivals have kept up pressure. The SFI and DYFI have staged protests, and the BJP has attacked the Congress’s “double standards.”

That public heat is exactly what Satheesan is trying to redirect, urging the Left to focus on allegations within its own ranks instead of marching to his home, and telling both rivals that Congress will proceed by its rulebook, not theirs.

Now the future course of the issue will be decided by three vectors. First, whether any of the women who spoke up file formal complaints, which would shift the locus from party discipline to law enforcement and the courts. Second, how consistently Congress applies its stated standard across its own bench including in the long-running Vincent case and the charge-sheeted Kunnappilly matter. Third, whether Satheesan’s promise that “more is brewing” materialises into tangible steps or disclosures.

For now, the facts are these: Rahul Mamkoottathil has been suspended from the Congress, he has not resigned as MLA, protests continue, and the political argument has moved to who truly practises and not just preaches accountability.