IUML makes a pitch for Kerala CM post, signal to ally Congress?

Replying to a question on a chief minister from the IUML in the event of the UDF winning the polls, Thangal said, “It will happen if the Congress is willing”. He then said “the chief minister is already here”, pointing to his senior party colleague P K Kunhalikutty, who was also there.

On the IUML’s chances of getting a deputy CM’s post, Thangal said: “That will certainly happen. The symbol of Kunhalikutty is Kerala state two (which means deputy CM in Kerala with ‘Kerala state one’ referring to the CM).”

Thangal said Kunhalikutty will be leading the IUML in the Assembly elections. “Kunhalikutty will be heading from the front,” he said.

The Congress has not officially reacted to the IUML’s readiness to head the UDF, even as it is aiming to get the better of the ruling CPM-led LDF in 2026 after losing the polls in 2016 and 2021. Several senior Congress leaders, including Leader of Opposition (LoP) V D Satheesan, Ramesh Chennithala and All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K C Venugopal, are seen in the party circles as frontrunners in the CM race.

Expressing concern over the row, senior Congress leader and ex-home minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said, “Let us first try to win the elections. The issue of the CM emerges only after winning the elections. The first priority should be fighting the elections unitedly and the rest only after that.”

Congress sources said the IUML’s bid to start a debate on the CM post may damage the UDF’s prospects in the elections.

The IUML had headed a government in Kerala in 1979 under its chief minister C H Mohammed Koya. His government lasted for only three months (October-December, 1979) though.

Over the last several decades, the IUML has been a key ally of the Congress in Kerala as well as at the Centre. In North Kerala, the IUML is considered as the UDF’s “lifeline”.

The IUML wielded enormous clout in the previous UDF regimes of 2001-2006 and 20011-2016. The party then used to handle key portfolios of education, public works, industries, and local self-government.

In 2012, the IUML had unilaterally announced its fifth minister in the then Oommen Chandy-led UDF government, embarrassing the Congress leadership.

Months before the 2021 Kerala polls, Kunhalikutty had quit as a Lok Sabha MP to contest the Assembly elections. His return to the Assembly, barely two years after winning the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, was construed as an IUML game plan to elevate him to the deputy CM’s role in the event of the UDF’s win. Some even believed that the Congress suffered a “backlash” from its Hindu and Christian vote banks as a fallout of the campaign that Kunhalikutty would be the deputy CM.

The new debate triggered by the IUML’s CM pitch has come at a time when a section of Hindus and Christians is said to be leaning towards the BJP in some belts.

In the Assembly elections in the last two decades, the IUML’s performance has been consistent even when the Congress suffered debacles. In 2001, when the UDF clinched the polls by winning 99 seats out of 140, the Congress won 63 seats while the IUML got 16. In 2011, when the UDF returned to power, the Congress was reduced to 38 seats while the IUML got 20. In 2016, when the LDF clinched the polls, the Congress got only 22 as compared to the IUML’s 18. In the 2021 elections, when CM Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF returned to power for a second consecutive term, the Congress and the IUML won 21 seats and 15 seats respectively.

Gearing up to take on the Congress in the 2026 polls, the CPM took a swipe at the “power tussle” in the UDF. Addressing the CPM district conference in Ernakulam recently, party leader P Rajeeve said, “Congress leaders face threat for the LoP post in the Assembly. They need not worry about the CM’s post. They should worry whether the Opposition leader’s post will go to IUML.”

In the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the CPM sought to woo the IUML in a bid to expand its base among minorities, hailing the party for its “secular stand” and indicating that “Left doors would be open for IUML”. In its campaign, the Left refrained from targeting the IUML while attacking the Congress on various issues. It even warmed up to the pro-IUML cleric body SAMASTHA.

However, after suffering a rout in the Lok Sabha polls – which saw the LDF win just one seat out of 20 as against the UDF’s 18 seats and the BJP’s one seat, its first-ever – the CPI(M) abandoned its soft line towards the IUML, calling it the face of right-wing Muslim outfits in the state.