With local body elections around the corner, Kerala has once again slipped into its favorite pre-election pastime: political gymnastics. Leaders move across party lines with the confidence of circus veterans, each hoping to make a perfect landing, preferably a winning seat.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have seen their share of surprise arrivals, dramatic exits and mid-air flips. But among the many flip-flops of the season, one man managed to pull off a maneuver so unexpected that it instantly qualifies as the funniest political turn of the year.
Meet Akhil Omanakuttan, a Youth Congress leader from Pathanamthitta whose weekly political adventure can best be described as a sprint through the revolving door of Kerala politics. One turn in, one turn out, all before anyone could blink.
Akhil’s version
Akhil is now adamant that he never joined the BJP, despite a photo doing the rounds showing him smiling politely with a saffron scarf draped around his shoulders. According to him, the whole saga started innocently. On November 19, after taking his mother for a medical test, he offered a friend a quick lift to Pandalam to be taken straight to a gathering of “acquaintances” who, as fate would have it, all turned out to be BJP workers.
Then came the moment that has now sparked a thousand memes.
“In a funny moment, someone put a BJP scarf on me and clicked a photo. I thought it was just a joke,” he says. But the joke grew legs. Within hours, television channels and mobile phones across Kerala were flashing headlines of his ‘entry’ into the BJP.
Akhil says that’s when he ‘realised the deception behind it’.
“I have never resigned from my organization nor accepted BJP membership,” he insists. “I remain a worker of the Youth Congress, as always.”
He has since accused sections of the media of intensifying the smear campaign and publicly apologized for what he calls his “negligence”. For now, Akhil is back in the Congress hideout, scarf-less.
Published – 26 Nov 2025 19:46 IST
