reassert his prominent role in party affairs as a sharp strategist of the antikarunakaran pole in the party in the state the antikarunakaran faction skillfully handled the isro spy scandal against karunakaran by piling up pressure on the then congress chief and prime minister the late pv narasimha rao chandy then successfully won over the coalition partners of the congress in the state including the iuml and kerala congress m to denounce karunakaran despite his popularity among the party rank and file chandy never had any aspiration to become part of the central leadership of the congress chandy was at the forefront of countering cpimled ldf especially in central travancore in 2011 when chandy became chief minister the congressled udf had only a waferthin majority however an astute politician with exceptional execution abilities chandy carried on with all the constituents of the udf and his government completed the tenure during an interview soon after assuming power chandy spoke about this saying it is not the majority alone that counts but the policies of the government and the relationship among constituents he then had asserted that his government would complete the full term an easily accessible politician chandy appeared to have drawn his energy from being surrounded by people often cutting across political affiliations with his simple appearance and pleasant persona with luxuriant hair done carelessly chandy had an exceptional record of having never betraying ire even in the face of the most provocative situations chandy faced his severest challenge towards the end of his tenure as cm when the solar scam broke out the opposition ldf made a big issue out of the scandal by launching an unsparing campaign which paved the way for the congress led udfs defeat in the 2016 assembly polls after the electoral reverse chandy refrained from taking the post of opposition leader proposing ramesh chennithala who was the home minister in his cabinet to the slot this was a turning point in chandys long career that saw him slowly recede from centrestage though there had been a clamour from a section of the party for chandy to return and take on the cpim aggressively his failing health prevented him to live up to the wishes of his supporters chandy had a sterling record in kerala politics returning to the state assembly 53 years in a row from his home constituency he was first elected from puthuppally on a congress ticket in 1970 puthupally under the stewardship of chandy was the only constituency left untouched by the political shifts that the state witnessed for more than half a centurywith inputs from pti