‘Who will be CM?’ Kerala Congress faces internal churn as candidates go public ahead of polls

Thiruvananthapuram: While a podcast being launched by senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala and release of book by AICC general secretary K C Venugopal on his selected speeches are widely seen as self-projections eyeing the Kerala Chief Minister post, supporters of opposition leader V D Satheesan are openly projecting him as the next Chief Minister of Kerala.

As the overt and covert campaigns by top Congress leaders for the Chief Minister post hot up even ahead of the election results, former state police chief T P Senkumar has added oil to the fire by highlighting Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh.

"Why is the Congress not even considering senior leader Kodikunnil Suresh as CM even as party top leader Rahul Gandhi often speaks for Dalits and OBCs," Senkumar, who used to support RSS-BJP, said in a social media post.

Despite Rahul Gandhi openly cautioning the Congress leaders in Kerala against self-promotion, leaders and their supporters continue to flout it openly.

While some senior leaders openly project K C Venugopal as the next Chief Minister, his rival camps have unleashed a campaign not to force the state for two more by-polls. 

In case Venugopal is made the Chief Minister, any ruling front MLA will have to resign for Venugopal to contest in a by-poll and the Alappuzha Lok Sabha seat that Venugopal now represents would also go for by-polls. Venugopal already faced much criticism for resigning the Rajya Sabha MP post to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election as BJP-NDA gained the RS seat vacated by Venugopal, his opponents point out.

Venugopal told reporters on Friday that he was not at all interested in any debates over the next Congress chief minister as the party has a procedure in selecting the chief minister after the election results come.

There were also reports that Venugopal was wrongly mentioned as the next Kerala Chief Minister in Wikipedia on Friday and it was later removed. Screenshots in this regard have come out.

Chennithala, who announced the podcast titled 'Kerala Yatra' on Friday, said that it was not aimed at any personal political gains, but only to discuss the state's development visions and ideas.

Satheesan's supporters strongly feel that since Satheesan has been effectively leading the United Democratic Front over the last five years he would emerge as the natural choice for the Chief Minister post.

Meanwhile, the CPM is ridiculing the campaigns and counter campaigns in the Congress over the CM post ahead of the election results. "The Congress is writing horoscopes of a child even before pregnancy," CPM senior leader A K Balan ridiculed.