KOCHI: The Congress has named V K Minimol and Shiny Mathew as the new mayors of the Kochi Corporation under a term-sharing arrangement, ending days of suspense after the party’s decisive victory in the local body elections.
While the compromise formula is aimed at balancing factional and community equations within the party, it has triggered open dissent from KPCC general secretary and AICC member Deepthi Mary Varghese, exposing internal fault lines even at a moment of political triumph.
Under the arrangement, Minimol, the state vice-president of the Mahila Congress, and Shiny, a councillor from the Fort Kochi division, will serve as mayor for two-and-a-half years each.
The deputy mayor’s post will also be shared between Deepak Joy and K V Krishnakumar—both Hindus, as both mayoral contenders are Christians—a move widely seen as the Congress leadership’s attempt to maintain caste and community balance in a city with complex social arithmetic.
Three names were in contention for the mayor’s post — Deepthi, Minimol, and Shiny.
As a KPCC general secretary and permanent member of the AICC, Deepthi was initially perceived as the frontrunner and was projected as the mayoral face in the days following the election results.
However, party sources say an internal opinion survey among Congress councillors altered the trajectory.
According to these sources, Shiny secured the support of 22 out of the 42 Congress councillors, while Minimol received the backing of 17 councillors, along with the support of Leader of the Opposition V D Satheeshan. Deepthi, who is considered close to AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, reportedly garnered limited support in the survey.
Shiny is associated with the party’s ‘A group’, while Minimol belongs to the group led by Satheeshan, making the term-sharing formula a carefully calibrated political compromise.
The decision, however, runs contrary to KPCC guidelines that give preference to KPCC office-bearers for mayor and deputy mayor posts—a norm that favoured Deepthi.
Ernakulam DCC president Muhammed Shiyas later said the party opted for term-sharing as there was more than one “qualifying and acceptable” candidate for the post, a remark that reflected the leadership’s attempt to project consensus.
Deepthi, however, publicly challenged the process. In a strongly worded statement, she said KPCC norms were not followed and argued that in cases of disagreement, the mayor’s post should go to the most senior organisational leader.
Deepthi also questioned the credibility of the internal opinion poll, stating that it was conducted without any official observer. “If anyone wants to believe Dominic and P Venugopal, they can believe so,” she said, indicating her firm opposition to the survey and the process that led to the final decision.
Adding to the discontent, Deepthi said senior party leaders had assured her that a KPCC core committee—of which she is a member—would meet to take a final call on the mayoral post, but no such meeting took place.
Her remarks have brought factional politics back into focus, even as the Congress leadership seeks to consolidate its authority in Kochi.
For Shiny Mathew, the mayoral post carries a sense of unfinished business. She was expected to take over as mayor during the second half of the 2015–2020 term, but the transition never happened as the mayor Soumini Jain did not step down. Minimol, meanwhile, is a four-time councillor with experience in key standing committees and a strong organisational base.
Now it remains to be seen whether the Congress leadership will seek to placate Deepthi by offering her the post of the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC) chairperson or the Thrikkakara assembly seat, sources said.
"Deepthi has merit. She is a senior leader in the party," said a Congress source.
As the party settles into power at the Kochi Corporation, managing internal equations may prove as challenging as taking on the opposition outside, said political observers.
