A week has passed since the results of the assembly elections in Kerala, but a new government has not been formed yet. UDF led by Congress won a big victory. Congress won maximum number of seats. With this, everyone thought that the selection of the Chief Minister would be easy. They thought that there might not be as much confusion as happened in Tamil Nadu. But Kerala has a bigger headache than Tamil Nadu. Three key leaders have entered the race for the Chief Minister’s post. The leadership is confused as to who to choose. At first the name of KC.Venugopal was heard prominently. Later, when the names of Satishan and Ramesh Chennith came to the fore, a class war started in the party. In this background, the high command is confused as to who should be selected.
In the midst of this chaos, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi herself stepped into the fray. It seems that Congress President Mallikarjuna Kharge has held discussions with Rahul Gandhi. However, KC Venugopal found that the support of the Congress high command and the support of the newly elected MLAs was mostly with KC Venugopal. On the other hand, party sources say that VD Satheesan has strong support from Kerala level activists and Priyanka Gandhi is also supporting his candidature.
Due to the current chaos, the Congress high command started talks with former Kerala PCC presidents VM Sudheeran and Mullapally Ramachandran. It seems that senior leader AK Antony will also act as a key advisor in this process. For the past week, Venugopal and Satishan’s followers have been conducting poster war, protests and public support demonstrations across the state, which has become a headache for the party. It is reported that some leaders feel that the aggressive campaign in favor of Satheesan may have damaged his chances.
However, Congress observers Ajay Maken and Mukul Wasnik have already met the newly elected MLAs personally and collected their opinions on the choice of CM. According to party sources, it seems that most of the MLAs have supported KC Venugopal. There are reports that the administration wants to hand over the post of chief minister to him.
The UDF alliance won 102 seats in the 140-member Kerala Assembly. Congress won 63 seats, Muslim League 22 seats, Kerala Congress 8 seats and Revolutionary Socialist Party 3 seats. But despite the massive victory, the ongoing uncertainty over the choice of CM is now dampening the UDF’s enthusiasm.