Kerala Assembly Elections 2026 | Tough task ahead for Congress with 3 top contenders for CM post

New Delhi: Congress is getting into hectic negotiations to decide on its chief minister in Kerala, where the party has returned to power, but the exercise is not going to be an easy one with top contenders KC Venugopal, VD Satheesan and Ramesh Chennithala unlikely to make space for their inner-party rival.

Venugopal, Congress General Secretary (Organisation), reached Delhi and was closeted with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, but sources said Kerala affairs did not come up for discussion as the leaders were engaged in deciding on the question of supporting Vijay-led TVK in Tamil Nadu.

With Venugopal indicating that he would not be part of the central leadership's discussions on Kerala, sources said Kharge and Rahul will soon make a decision on sending observers to the state to find out the mind of newly-elected MLAs and their preference for chief minister.

The two top leaders will also finalise the procedure for selecting the leader of the Legislature Party, and they are expected to take the call by Wednesday. The team of observers going to Kerala is likely to get the legislature party to pass a resolution authorising the central leadership to finalise the name for the chief minister.

In addition to the four-member observer team led by senior leader KJ George and general secretary Sachin Pilot, another senior leader may also be appointed to go to Kerala. Imran Pratapgarhi and Kanhaiya Kumar are the other two observers.

PTI reported that senior leaders Ajay Maken and Mukul Wasnik will be sent as observers to Kerala.

Sources said Venugopal would not give up his claim for the chief minister's post, and he believes that the majority of the 63 Congress MLAs will prefer him.

However, Satheesan, the outgoing leader of the opposition in Kerala, and Chennithala, a former state president and home minister, also will not be budging on their demand that they be given the prime slot in Kerala's administration.