[3] He gave up his teaching profession in 1987[2] and contested the Trivandram West seat in the 1987 Kerala Legislative Assembly election, finishing in second place with 30,096 votes.

[5] Chandrachoodan lost a re-election for the post as RSP Kerala State Committee secretary in January 2008, defeated by V.P.

[2][6] Chandrachoodan was elected general secretary of the RSP on 24 March 2008, at a national party conference held in Delhi.

According to press sources the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), was interested in getting Chandrachoodan elected to the national parliament, because of his skills as an orator.

Ramakrishna Pillai and others in the Kerala leadership of the party opposed his candidature, and opted not to request the seat at the Left Democratic Front convention.

[7][8] In the subsequent election to the Rajya Sabha, the RSP requested that Chandrachoodan be nominated as Kerala's Left Democratic Front candidate, but the CPI(M) was no longer interested in supporting his candidature.