NEW DELHI: The deadlock over the selection of Kerala’s next chief minister appears headed for a breakthrough, with Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday holding a last round of talks with former KPCC chiefs, working presidents and others at Sonia Gandhi’s residence.
The leadership opted for wider consultations to ensure that the decision to be seen as a collective one rather than a unilateral choice imposed by the party high command.
While AICC general secretary K C Venugopal appears to be way ahead in the race, riding on the support of newly elected MLAs, sources said the name of the CM is likely to be announced on Wednesday. The other two contenders are Ramesh Chennithala and V D Satheesan.
Of the senior leaders who met Rahul on Tuesday, a majority except former KPCC presidents V M Sudheeran and K Muraleedharan, were understood to have backed Venugopal’s candidature.
Sources said Muraleedharan and Sudheeran conveyed to Rahul that public sentiment should be taken into consideration before deciding the new CM. However, opposing this view, some leaders told Rahul that the protests were not spontaneous but were orchestrated by certain leaders as a pressure tactic.
Sources also said UDF ally Muslim League’s support to Satheesan further complicated matters. Muraleedharan said since it is the UDF CM, views of allies will also have to be considered.
The Chennithala camp says that he is the senior most leader who has always stood by the party and the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Question of two bye-elections
Satheesan’s camp also argues that if Venugopal is given the post, the UDF will have to face two bye-elections—one to elect him to the assembly and another to elect a new MP for Alappuzha Lok Sabha seat currently represented by Venugopal. The Venugopal camp claims that he has the support of most MLAs and is a strategist capable of ensuring victory in the bypolls. His camp also claims that most of the Congress MPs from Kerala also support Venugopal
