Anil Antony Is A Chip Off The Old Block. Just Look At Father AK Antony's Political Career Graph

Anil Antony is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prized catch in Kerala, where the saffron party finds Congress turncoats hard to come by. For those unfamiliar with the young man, his surname might ring a bell. Anil Antony, 37, is the elder son of Congress veteran and three-term chief minister AK Antony. A technology entrepreneur, Anil graduated from the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, and went on to do his masters from Stanford University. 

Stint In Congress

Anil made his foray into politics as a backroom strategist during the Gujarat assembly elections in 2017, and went on to become a part of the Congress campaigns in the 2018 assembly elections. 

It was Mullappally Ramachandran, who nominated Anil as the convener of the social media cell of the Kerala unit after taking charge as the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief in 2018, much to the chagrin of local aspirants. The 2019 Lok Sabha election was a cakewalk even as the 2021 assembly elections proved to be a disaster, where some of the blame was also laid at the feet of Anil’s inept social media team. 

The hostility that Anil encountered during his stint had to mostly do with his quick rise to prominence in the party. However, it is not as if his father’s recommendation helped him. In fact, Mullappally Ramachandran is on record saying that it was Ahmed Patel who put in a word for Anil with him. 

Ramachandran even proposed to nominate Anil as a KPCC general secretary, which, reportedly, was shot down by AK Antony. Forever conscious of his assiduously cultivated image — earning him the moniker of ‘Saint Antony’ — the veteran wouldn’t want his legacy to be tainted by charges of nepotism. 

Hedging Bets

Following the 2021 assembly elections in Kerala, Anil gradually withdrew into a shell. He did not hide his disillusionment with the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, after failing to make it to the latter’s inner circle despite his best efforts. 

Anil’s open backing of Shashi Tharoor’s candidature for the All India Congress Committee (AICC) presidential election was duly noted, especially with his father being the first signatory to the nomination form of Mallikarjun Kharge, the official nominee. 

Anil continued to hold charge of the social media unit in Kerala, and also remained a coordinator with the national cell, but his silence during Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ became all too conspicuous. Eventually, it was his hawkish stand on the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi that cast him in the media spotlight. 

The backlash from the Congress led him to quit all party posts. And notwithstanding his resolve to stay back in the party, his ambition got the better of him, sooner than later. 

A Chip Off The Old Block

Make no mistake, Anil is a chip off the old block, and AK Antony would surely understand where Anil is coming from. 

For sure, their initiation into politics came under vastly different circumstances. Antony had to battle extreme poverty to complete his education but he was a master at turning adversities into opportunities. Anil, however, was born with the proverbial silver spoon, and had many windows open up for him purely on account of his lineage. But that’s where the dissimilarity ends.

A careful analysis of AK Antony’s political career would present a picture of a man who was always at the right place at the right time. Forever making the right moves, even to the timely shifting of his base to Thiruvananthapuram just last year, Antony is the master of realpolitik. 

In his prime, Antony had arbitrarily invoked party bylaws to oust his closest competitors like MA John to emerge as the numero uno in the party. Whenever he resigned from a position undertaking moral responsibility, a bigger post always came to him on a platter. 

Antony’s resignation as the Union civil supplies minister from the Narasimha Rao cabinet in 1995 was timed in such a way that he flew straightaway to Kerala to take oath as the Kerala CM. His resignation as CM in 2004 seemingly came as a setback, but he rebounded quickly enough to take charge as the country’s defence minister. 

For someone who quit as the youngest CM in a huff to join the Marxist alliance in 1978, protesting the party’s backing of Indira Gandhi’s candidature at Chikmagalur in a byelection, Antony had no qualms in opportunistically returning to the Congress after Gandhi’s successful comeback as the prime minister in 1980. 

Why Anil Defected To BJP 

Anil’s defection to the BJP needs to be seen in this backdrop. In the Congress, he would always be known as AK Antony’s son. Moreover, the political prospects of Congress look extremely bleak to him in the foreseeable future. And thus, it made ample sense for Anil to join the saffron party — ideology be damned.

Anil reckons the BJP can utilise him better, especially with its dearth of minority faces in Kerala. The BJP has already invoked Anil’s Christian identity, as part of its larger outreach to the community. Anil is slated to chair the youth conclave at Narendra Modi’s ‘Yuvam 2023’ slated for April 24 in Kochi, where the PM is expected to project him as a future leader.

The astute politician in AK Antony would definitely relate with that. No wonder that he didn’t go so far as to disown his son for joining the BJP, instead merely expressing his anguish. In fact, Antony’s minute-long reaction to the media was a masterclass of sorts where he said only what he wanted to say, and ending with “this is my first and last reaction on the topic”, without taking any question from the media. 

For all the embarrassment it may have caused him, Antony could well be chuffed at his son’s deft political moves. True, it would have momentarily caught him off guard, but his heart might be swelling with pride at his son’s political foresight. As the maxim goes, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

The author is a journalist and columnist based in South India.

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