In the 140-member Assembly, the Congress has its best-ever tally of 63 seats within the UDF, which won a total of 102 seats.
The camps of Opposition Leader V D Satheesan, former Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala and All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K C Venugopal have been making competing claims for the top post. While Satheesan and Chennithala were elected to the Assembly in this election, Lok Sabha member Venugopal did not contest.
Satheesan has widely been seen as the natural choice due to his performance as Leader of the Opposition and his popularity among party workers, but Chennithala is staking his claim based on seniority. Venugopal, on the other hand, is relying on his strong connection with the Congress high command, particularly his proximity to Rahul Gandhi.
A senior Congress leader said, “The high command can take a decision, either after hearing the elected party members, or even without that. Also, there is a precedent of the Opposition Leader being the natural choice for the post of Chief Minister. But there have also been exceptions to this. For example, in Telangana, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka had been the Opposition leader when the party contested in 2023. After the Congress won elections, Revanth Reddy was made Chief Minister and Vikramarka Deputy CM.”
Some Congress sources have questioned Venugopal’s move to join the CM race. “If Venugopal is made CM, the party will have to fight by-elections to the Assembly as well as to the Lok Sabha. When the party has several eligible members among those elected, what is the justification for promoting such a move? Days earlier, he was made the chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament. Then why is he keenly eyeing the Kerala post? In 2024, he fought the Lok Sabha elections in Kerala when he was a Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan. Later, the BJP won that seat in Rajasthan. Why does the party meet his every demand?” asked a leader.
The camps of the three leaders vying for the post have already started taking a count of the elected MLAs who may support them in the event they need to display a show of strength. Many Congress MPs, who are disgruntled over the denial of tickets to contest the Assembly election, are also part of hectic lobbying.
Story continues below this ad
“Most of the legislators have been divided between Chennithala and Venugopal. Chennithala banks upon his old group, which he had inherited from K Karunakaran. Most of the young elected members are loyal to Venugopal. While the people’s mandate is for Satheesan, he does not have a battery of legislators to parade before the party high command,” sources said.
Chennithala, who was the party’s CM face in the last election in which the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF retained power, said on Tuesday that he believed he had the support of elected MLAs.
“The high command will decide on the CM. If the leadership seeks the opinion of MLAs, I hope I will get the support of a comfortable number of them. In the 2011 elections, [Oommen] Chandy and I contested. In the meeting of elected legislators, I had said that he should be the Chief Minister, considering his seniority. I did not go for any race,” said Chennithala, hinting at his seniority among the contenders.
The Congress’s ally in the UDF, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), however, put its weight behind Satheesan. “As the Opposition Leader, he has discharged his role in an exemplary manner in the last five years. His Kerala yatra (which took place earlier this year) and the issues he had raised have been well accepted by the people. We hope the Congress high command will take a decision after considering such factors,” said IUML president Sayyid Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal.
Story continues below this ad
On the sidelines of the race for the CM post, the Congress is also facing another tough call — selecting the Cabinet ministers. Despite its numerical strength, Congress is compelled to accommodate all UDF alliance partners in the Cabinet.
