Many MLAs with Venugopal, party workers back Satheesan: In race for Kerala CM post, AICC assesses options
Ramesh Chennithala is another leader in contention, and his camp is confident his seniority will be taken into account.
The Congress high command has started consulting Kerala MLAs and alliance partners as competition intensifies among V D Satheesan, K C Venugopal and Ramesh Chennithala for the chief minister’s post. As the camps of three senior leaders have intensified their push for the top job, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) has begun the process of assessing who the elected MLAs in Kerala want as their next chief minister.
The Congress Legislative Party held a meeting on Thursday, during which it passed a resolution entrusting the AICC president to take the final decision on who will be the leader of the legislative party.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) had swept the Assembly election in Kerala, winning 102 out of 140 seats, and the Congress alone securing a record 63. However, picking a chief minister has been a challenge for the party, with Opposition leader V D Satheesan, former Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, and AICC general secretary K C Venugopal all throwing their hat in the fray.
AICC observers Mukul Wasnik and Ajay Maken will have one-to-one meetings with Congress MLAs about their choice for the top job. Several senior leaders who owe allegiance to the three contenders also met the observers.
The contest among the three leaders has resulted in palpable tension across the Congress’s Kerala unit. A growing section of party workers is rallying behind Satheesan, arguing that the mandate is for his political stand. Party workers supporting Satheesan are ready to take to the streets in many places in the state. Satheesan has been leading the UDF in the last five years and is seen as the main architect of the alliance’s success in the election.
While the race is seen to be mainly between Satheesan and Venugopal at this stage, Chennithala’s camp, which is mainly banking on his seniority in the party, also expects that its leader will emerge as the AICC’s choice.
Congress sources said most elected legislators are backing Venugopal, who is the party’s most powerful leader from Kerala at the national level and is seen as being close to Rahul Gandhi.
“The impression is that Venugopal had ensured enough money for the election campaigning in Kerala. In the 2021 elections, many Congress candidates had struggled to find resources. This time, all the candidates, irrespective of their personal capacity to find resources, had enough funds. At the same time, elected MLAs also know that Satheesan is the natural choice, considering the nature of the political mandate after the elections,” a source said.
“We do not know what the central leadership’s consensus formula is. The race will also be reflected in the selection of Congress ministers. Even if one among the three is picked for the post of chief minister, it remains unclear whether the incumbent will have the freedom to choose ministers for the Cabinet. Any distrust could take the Congress in Kerala back to the old days [when factionalism played out openly in the party],” the source added.
Allies’ backing
Meanwhile, the decision of the Congress’s most important ally in the UDF, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), to back Satheesan has rattled the Venugopal camp. AICC observers are also meeting leaders of Congress’s junior partners in the UDF. It is learnt that Kerala Congress (Joseph), which has seven legislators, is also backing Satheesan in the CM race.
Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan, before meeting AICC observers, expressed his displeasure over the IUML’s stand. “The Congress will decide the CM. The mandate is due to the hard work of thousands of party workers. Success is not the magical work of a single person. Congress has a history of finding chief ministers. The IUML is the backbone of the UDF, but can Congress decide [about the chief minister] based on the IUML’s Legislative Party leadership or its ministers?” he asked, while talking to reporters.
Congress MP K Sudhakaran, who had wanted to contest in the Assembly election but was denied a ticket, told reporters, “I have explained to them (the observers) that there is not just one Satheesan, but many Satheesans in the party. We have several leaders. MLAs’ support is very important. Let the observers learn what’s on the MLAs’ minds.” When Sudhakaran was the Congress’s Kerala unit president and Satheesan the Leader of Opposition, the two had a strained relationship.
The battle for the CM post in Kerala is more complex this time for the Congress than in previous years, due to an important AICC figure, Venugopal, being one of the contenders. In the past, the high command only had to deal with issues pertaining to two groups, led most of the time by senior state-level leaders like K Karunakaran and A K Antony.
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