Welcome to this week’s Powertrip, a political newsletter exclusively curated for TNM and NL subscribers. This week’s edition is by Dhanya Rajendran, Shabbir Ahmed, Pooja Prasanna, and Binu Karunakaran.

For our first story, we spoke to senior Congress leaders about the alternative candidates they are exploring in Palakkad after the exit of Rahul Mamkootathil. It appears that the party has very few viable options, as former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan’s candidature may or may not work out.

When KC Venugopal met Tamil Nadu CM Stalin recently, we learnt that he handed over a sealed envelope with a message from Sonia Gandhi explaining why the Congress wanted two Rajya Sabha seats from the DMK.

A pre-poll survey conducted by the CPI(M) in Tamil Nadu has thrown up some surprising details about voters vis-à-vis the new political entrant, TVK.

Keen to shed its “anti-development” image, the Left government in Kerala has been using the Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) as the primary vehicle for its publicity.

Read the full newsletter for all the details. 

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