4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: May 12, 2026 05:43 AM IST
Unable to resolve the tussle over who will be the Chief Minister of Kerala, a week after the Assembly election results were announced, the Congress high command has summoned former state Congress presidents, some senior leaders, and working presidents of the state unit to Delhi for a meeting on Tuesday. The attempt seems to be to dress up the decision as a collective one to ensure that blame does not land at the leadership’s doorstep.
With V D Satheesan, who was the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the previous Assembly, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, and former state Congress chief Ramesh Chennithala refusing to give up their claim for the post, the high command has found itself in a fix, especially since Venugopal, who is not an MLA and is part of the central leadership, is the choice of a majority of newly elected MLAs and MPs.
The AICC general secretary in charge of Kerala, Deepa Dasmunsi, has telephoned many of the former state Congress presidents — among them, Mullappally Ramachandran, V M Sudheeran and K Muraleedharan — senior leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, and working presidents Shafi Parambil, P C Vishnunath and A P Anil Kumar, asking them to reach Delhi for consultations. Ramachandran has expressed his inability to travel to Delhi. He was told that Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi would speak to him to know his mind. The Congress leadership has also reached out to veteran leader and former Chief Minister A K Antony.
Sources said Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi would also be consulted before a final decision is taken. The decision to go for wider consultations came on Monday after the central party leadership failed to arrive at a consensus candidate, even after three hours of intense discussions with Satheesan, Venugopal, and Chennithala, besides state party chief Sunny Joseph, on Saturday.
VD Satheesan, Ramesh Chennithala and KC Venugopal with other Congress leaders in New Delhi last week. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav/File)
With a factional show of strength in favour and against the three contenders spilling onto the streets, the high command decided to buy time while asking the three to issue a joint appeal against street protests. After the joint appeal, the protests and flex board politics have more or less stopped, which signals that they were not organic and were being done with the blessings of the leaders, according to party insiders. Those favouring Satheesan had argued that the public sentiment was behind him.
With Venugopal, who is considered close to Rahul Gandhi. emerging as the preferred choice of the MLAs, a section of the AICC leaders believes that the Gandhi family as an impartial arbiter could be at stake. AICC leaders say Venugopal is still the frontrunner for the CM post, given the support he has among the legislators. In the recent past, the Congress high command has largely gone by the views of the MLAs in selecting CMs.
The leadership departed from that tradition in Punjab in 2021 when it picked Charanjit Singh Channi as CM after the resignation of Captain Amarinder Singh though Sunil Jhakhar, not an MLA at the time, secured the support of a majority of the MLAs. In Channi, Punjab got its first Dalit CM.
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“If the AICC picks Venugopal, there will surely be a murmur that a non-MLA was selected because he is close to Rahul Gandhi. The argument will be that Congress could have rewarded Satheesan, who led the fight, or gone by seniority. If the AICC goes with Satheesan, the question of support of MLAs would come up … It is better to go for wider consultations involving everyone so that a consensus formula, which is acceptable to all, emerges, and Rahul and the high command alone are not blamed,” said a senior leader.
VD Satheesan, Ramesh Chennithala and KC Venugopal with other Congress leaders in New Delhi last week. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav/File)