Congress in catch-22 over Kerala CM pick, Rahul livid over tussle flaring on streets
While Congress high command fails to reach a consensus during a meeting with Satheesan, Venugopal and Chennithala, the three contenders remain firm in staking their respective claims to CM's post
Congress’s Kerala affairs in-charge Deepa Dasmunshi and senior party leaders VD Satheeshan, Ramesh Chennithala, Sunny Joseph and KC Venugopal after meeting party chief Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi on Saturday. (Photo: Gajendra Yadav) The tussle within Congress over its choice of Kerala Chief Minister intensified Saturday, with the party high command failing to arrive at a consensus candidate even after three hours of intense discussions with the three contenders — outgoing state Leader of the Opposition (LoP) V D Satheesan, AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, and former state Congress chief Ramesh Chennithala — at party president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence in Delhi.
The only saving grace for the high command was that it managed to persuade the three leaders to jointly appeal to their supporters to stop taking the chief ministerial race to the streets.
Accordingly, all three leaders, along with state Congress president Sunny Joseph, issued a joint appeal against street protests. Satheesan asked party workers to remove all flex boards and banners put up across the state by supporters of the three leaders, possibly by Saturday night.
The high command, especially the LoP in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has taken a stern view of the unprecedented display of Congress factionalism on the streets of Kerala, arguing that it has dimmed the sheen of the UDF’s landslide victory in the Assembly elections.
Rahul was said to be furious over it. He told the three contenders that such pressure tactics should have been avoided given the huge mandate and that the public show of support by their respective camps was an insult to the people who have given the mandate to the Congress.
During the three-hour discussions — held both collectively and individually — with Kharge and Gandhi, all three contenders remained firm in staking their respective claims to the chief minister’s post. While Venugopal argued that he enjoys the support of a majority in the Congress Legislature Party (CLP), with more than 40 of the 63 party MLAs backing him, Chennithala reiterated the seniority factor in the selection of the next CM.
Satheesan, meanwhile, maintained that he has the support of the United Democratic Front (UDF)’s allies and that public sentiment favours him. He reportedly told the high command that he would not accept any post if denied the chief ministership.
After the meeting, AICC general secretary in charge of Kerala Deepa Dasmunsi said a final decision would be announced “very soon” and “in due time”. “For the last two-three days there have been some overenthusiastic workers… and some unruly incidents have happened in Kerala. People have given us a landslide majority… and those unruly incidents are not our Congress culture. So, we are requesting all workers to stop this kind of activity,” she said. Dasmunsi, along with AICC observers Ajay Maken and Mukul Wasnik, was part of the discussions.
According to sources, an “overwhelming” majority of the Congress’s newly elected MLAs, as well as MPs from the state, told AICC observers Maken and Wasnik that they wanted Venugopal to be named CM. However, both the Chennithala and Satheesan camps have also claimed support from MLAs.
The high command has a difficult task on its hands. While a majority of MLAs appear to have backed Venugopal, Satheesan has emerged as the dominant figure in the public imagination after leading the Congress and the UDF’s campaign and spearheading the offensive against the CPI(M)-led government of Pinarayi Vijayan over the last five years as the Opposition leader. Chennithala remains the seniormost among the three contenders.
All the three leaders have left for Kerala, an indication that the process of consultations with them is complete.
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