Congress leader and former state home minister Ramesh Chennithala is likely to be the Opposition leader in the Kerala Assembly, with former chief minister Oommen Chandy slated to be chairman of the UDF, a post normally held by the party leader in the House. A formal decision to this effect will be made at the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting scheduled for Sunday. Chandy, the Congress Parliamentary Party leader since 2004, had given hints that he would not be interested in becoming the Opposition leader after the UDF debacle, with 14 of the 22 newly elected party legislators belonging to the Chennithala camp in the party. Chennithala’s emergence as the party’s leader in Assembly would mark the beginning of a new era for the Congress in Kerala. “After the defeat, Chandy, Chennithala and party state president V M Sudheeran have tactically decided to retain the status quo in leadership matters in the party,” a source in state Congress said. “None of them has come out blaming the other over the poll debacle. Chandy and Chennithala mutually agreed on their roles, even as Sudheeran would continue as party state president.”
