THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a dramatic replay of the Congress party’s generational shift in Kerala, senior leader Ramesh Chennithala has once again been sidelined in favour of his junior V D Satheesan.
For Chennithala, it marks a second major snub from the high command. In 2021, he was replaced as Leader of Opposition by Satheesan. Five years later, Satheesan has now secured the top post, dealing a decisive blow to Chennithala’s long-cherished CM ambitions.
Sources said Chennithala conveyed his displeasure when Rahul Gandhi personally called to inform him of the decision.
Chennithala is learnt to have reminded the leadership that he had accepted the 2021 decision in the interest of party unity despite being overlooked then as well.
After the AICC announcement, Chennithala avoided the media and reportedly left the capital. His supporters said he had left for Guruvayur for his customary temple visit on the first day of the Malayalam month on Friday. The senior leader also skipped the Congress Legislature Party meeting and instead handed over a letter backing Satheesan as CLP leader, making his displeasure evident.
It is reliably learnt that Chennithala is not keen to join the Satheesan-led cabinet. “The Congress high command is engaged in efforts to persuade him with a plum berth, but he has not shown any such inclination as of now,” said a close confidant. The leader has also urged MLAs backing him to exercise restraint. For over four decades, Chennithala has remained a central figure in Kerala’s Congress politics. Rising from student activism to become one of the state’s youngest ministers, he served four terms as an MP and has six as MLA.
A native of Chennithala in Alappuzha, he entered student politics in the late 1960s. In 1982, the Congress fielded him from the Haripad Assembly constituency, from where he won at the age of 26. At 28, he became a minister in the K Karunakaran government.
Chennithala later served as AICC secretary for nearly a decade, overseeing organisational responsibilities in multiple states, including seven in the Northeast. Since 2023, he has been a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee.
As home minister in the Oommen Chandy government, Chennithala launched “Operation Kubera” in 2015 to crack down on illegal money-lending networks. He also spearheaded anti-drug campaigns and oversaw the restructuring of prison rules. As Leader of the Opposition, he recast himself as a vigilant watchdog of the government, raising several issues that put the LDF administration on the defensive.
These included the Sprinklr controversy, allegations relating to brewery and distillery sanctions, the deep-sea fishing proposal, the BEVCO app controversy and alleged sand smuggling.
