As the battle for Dalit mindspace is getting hotter, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has outwitted CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and BSP leader Mayawati in a popularity test among the Pulaya community, Kerala’s predominant SCs, who are traditional supporters of Communist parties.

Both Sonia and Karat will be in Kerala on February 14, the former addressing a rally of the All Kerala Pulaya Mahasabha (AKPM) and the latter a CPI(M) rally on the concluding day of the state party conference. The CPI(M) leadership tried to persuade leaders of AKMP to reschedule their rally so as not to overlap with the party rally, but failed.

Sonia Gandhi is the first national Congress leader to address an AKPM meeting. The community has produced many stalwarts in Communist parties and overwhelmingly voted for the Left. Kodikkunnil Suresh, a four-time Lok Sabha MP and a recently-appointed AICC secretary, is among the handful of community leaders in the Congress. Anyway, the All Kerala Pulaya Mahasabha decided to play spoilsport for the CPI(M) party conference and rubbed it the wrong way by inviting Sonia Gandhi.

The February 14 rally in Kochi is to commemorate the 100th anniversary of agricultural workers’ strike organised in 1907. Pulayas were agricultural labourers and Mahatma Ayyankali, a radical youth, mobilised the community against the prevalent untouchability and exploitation. Later, Ayyankali on became a legend in Kerala’s history of social reforms and his call for a labourers strike — much before the Communist movement took roots — was the first of its kind in the state. When the Communist party was set up, Pulayas became the most vocal supporters of the party and the association continued to this day, though not absolutely.

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