Kerala Congress is a registered-unrecognized political party in Kerala, formed by R. Balakrishna Pillai, a former minister of the government of Kerala. At present, the party has one MLA in the state Legislative Assembly, namely K. B. Ganesh Kumar, a well-known film actor and son of R. Balakrishna Pillai, who has been representing the Pathanapuram constituency in Kollam District since 2001. The Kerala Congress was a constituent of the Congress-led United Democratic Front until 2015 and is now part of Left Democratic Front. Ganesh Kumar served as a minister in the UDF government led by Oommen Chandy beginning May 18, 2011 until his resignation on April 2, 2013. Balakrishna Pillai was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1971 and the State Assembly nine times since 1960. However, in the 2006 election he was defeated by a little-known opponent belonging to the Communist Party of India. His son K. B. Ganesh Kumar, a Malayalam film and television actor, made his electoral debut in 2001, when he was elected from Pathanapuram. He went on to become Transport Minister in the A. K. Antony cabinet. He is currently the Acting Chairman of the Kerala Congress and was the Minister for Forest, Sports, and Cinema in the second Oommen Chandy Ministry from 2011 to 2013. The Party fielded two candidates in the 2011 election to the Kerala Assembly. N. N. Murali, a well known surgeon, is the party's candidate from Kottarakkara. Ganesh Kumar achieved a hat-trick win from the Pathanapuram constituency. But Murali was defeated by his relative and LDF candidate P. Aisha Potty and only Ganesh Kumar could become MLA. In 2015, the party left UDF and joined LDF. Ganesh Kumar again contested from Pathanapuram in the subsequent elections, and won for a fourth consecutive time, this time defeating another famous film actor Jagadish by a huge margin. Pathanapuram constituency got statewide attention in those elections as the three major contestants from the constituency were all film actors - Ganesh Kumar, Jagadish and Bheeman Raghu.
