AMN / NEW DELHI
The suspense over who will become Kerala’s next Chief Minister continued on Saturday, with the Congress high command yet to arrive at a final decision despite marathon discussions in New Delhi following the United Democratic Front’s emphatic Assembly election victory.
After the meeting, AICC general secretary and Kerala in-charge Deepa Dasmunshi said consultations on the leadership issue were still underway. She confirmed that all newly elected Congress MLAs had signed a one-line resolution authorising the party high command to take the final call on the leader of the new UDF government.
According to Dasmunshi, the decision will ultimately be taken by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in consultation with senior leader Rahul Gandhi.
The high-stakes meeting, which began at around 4 p.m. at Kharge’s residence in Delhi, was attended by Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal, senior leader Ramesh Chennithala and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Sunny Joseph.
AICC observers Mukul Wasnik and Ajay Maken, who recently held consultations with Congress legislators and alliance partners in Kerala, also participated in the discussions after submitting their report to the party leadership on Friday.
Even as the Congress leadership maintained silence on the frontrunner for the top post, intense lobbying and factional activity continued within the party. Supporters of senior leaders V D Satheesan, K C Venugopal and Ramesh Chennithala have been openly campaigning in favour of their respective leaders through posters, flex boards, public demonstrations and road shows across Kerala.
Senior Congress leader K Muraleedharan indicated that the process of selecting the next Chief Minister had entered its final stage.
“The information coming from Delhi is that discussions regarding the chief ministerial candidate are likely to be completed within the next 24 hours,” Muraleedharan told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram.
At the same time, he cautioned against reading too much into the public campaigns organised by supporters of various leaders.
“Flex boards and demonstrations cannot decide who becomes the Chief Minister,” he remarked, adding that he had communicated the sentiments of people from his constituency to the party leadership.
Muraleedharan also underlined that seniority alone would not determine the choice of Chief Minister and that the views of coalition partners, MLAs and the broader political situation would all be taken into consideration before a final announcement is made.