Kerala calling KC? Rahul Gandhi’s most important man Venugopal in CM race in house state
KC Venugopal has spent years working get together issues for the Congress from Delhi. The query now’s whether or not he will get to run a authorities from Thiruvananthapuram.
The Congress-led United Democratic Entrance’s (UDF) decisive victory within the Kerala meeting elections — 102 seats in a 140-member Home, with Congress alone profitable 63 — has set off a three-cornered contest for the chief ministership that factors to some divisions between the get together’s central management and its state-level staff.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, who’s Chief of the Opposition within the Lok Sabha, have been but to announce a ultimate determination as of Sunday night time, at the same time as Could 23, the deadline for presidency formation, attracts nearer.
Venugopal, 63, is on the centre of the suspense. Since 2019, he has served as Basic Secretary (Organisation) of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) — successfully the get together’s chief administrator, with key roles in candidate choice, organisational self-discipline, membership drives and alliance administration.
Venugopal is commonly described because the “most important hyperlink” between the Congress excessive command and its state models, with most inner get together selections working by means of his workplace. And he’s broadly considered among the many most trusted figures within the Rahul Gandhi-Kharge management.
He sits proper subsequent to Gandhi within the Lok Sabha, to his left.
His Kerala credentials are appreciable too. A 3-time MLA from Alappuzha between 1996 and 2009, he served because the state’s minister for tourism beneath the late Oommen Chandy earlier than transferring to nationwide politics. He received the Alappuzha Lok Sabha seat in 2009 and 2014, and served as a junior minister within the Union authorities, with portfolios corresponding to energy and civil aviation throughout UPA-2 beneath Manmohan Singh.
Within the 2026 Kerala marketing campaign, information company PTI famous citing sources, Venugopal helped convey disgruntled CPI(M) leaders of the then ruling LDF into the UDF.
Who backs whom, and what about that paper?
A majority of the get together’s legislators reportedly again Venugopal for the highest put up, with information company PTI and a few information channels citing unnamed sources to say his assist could possibly be 50 of 63 Congress MLAs. AICC observers Mukul Wasnik and Ajay Maken submitted their findings to Kharge on Friday after one-on-one conferences with all 63.
{A photograph} captured by a newspaper photographer appeared to indicate a doc in Wasnik’s palms itemizing a number of MLAs — together with state unit chief Sunny Joseph — as preferring Venugopal. Wasnik denied the doc was correct.
However MLA arithmetic is just a part of the story. PTI additionally cited sources to say the general public’s choice might lie with VD Satheesan.
Venugopal’s rival contenders
A six-time MLA from Paravur, Satheesan staked his political profession on this election. He had publicly declared earlier than the marketing campaign that he would “go into political exile” if the UDF didn’t return to energy. He didn’t should.
After serving as Chief of Opposition within the meeting for 5 years, he received his personal seat by over 20,600 votes. Congress staff organised demonstrations in his favour throughout at the least 5 districts, HT has reported. Pupil activists in Delhi turned out to obtain him on his late-night arrival within the capital.
Satheesan appealed for restraint, posting on Fb that staff ought to “desist from putting in flex boards and protesting on the streets by means of factions”, however the strain marketing campaign propping him up has been seen.
Venugopal additionally spoke on that: “There have been some unlucky incidents. These must be ended.”
Satheesan has additionally the backing of the the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) that has 22 legislators. The Kerala Congress (KEC) has received eight seats and the Revolutionary Socialist Social gathering (RSP) three. The Congress has 63, thus not majority of its personal; and the UDF has received a complete of 102 of 140 seats, which is greater than a two-thirds majority.
A 3rd contender, Ramesh Chennithala, 69, brings the longest political resumé of the three. A six-time MLA from Haripad, he grew to become the youngest minister in Kerala’s historical past at 28, serving beneath CM Okay Karunakaran in 1986. He has been the state Congress unit president, president of the get together’s wing Nationwide College students Union of India (NSUI), house minister beneath Oommen Chandy, and chief of the opposition.
Below his stewardship, the UDF swept Kerala within the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, profitable 19 of 20 seats.
In opposition to him weighs the 2021 meeting ballot defeat. That loss broke a four-decade streak of alternating governments in Kerala, with the LDF managing a consecutive victory.
On Saturday, Kharge convened a gathering at his Delhi residence that lasted over three hours, attended by Rahul Gandhi, state in-charge Deepa Dasmunsi, and all three CM contenders, amongst others. “Everybody expressed their views and Rahulji heard them patiently,” Chennithala mentioned afterwards to PTI.
“The ultimate determination on the chief minister can be taken by the Congress excessive command,” he mentioned. Congress chief Okay Muraleedharan added on Sunday that get together staff have been “certain to just accept” regardless of the excessive command introduced.
Venugopal didn’t contest the Kerala meeting elections. A transfer to the state would require him to win a bypoll inside six months of taking workplace. However that is solely a logistical complication, if he can handle the political bit.
Tailpiece: The place Tharoor stands
Former Union minister Shashi Tharoor’s identify circulated briefly in Delhi media circles as a darkish horse. He’s a four-term Thiruvananthapuram MP with a nationwide profile that maybe not one of the three frontrunners can match. He put the hypothesis to relaxation himself.
“Ideally, the CM must be picked from elected MLAs,” he mentioned, a formulation that dominated him out whereas presumably underlining that Venugopal didn’t contest the meeting elections both.
