Congress Kerala government will be run by 'remote control' from Delhi: BJP

New Delhi: The BJP on Thursday took a swipe at the Congress over its decision to appoint V D Satheesan as the next Kerala chief minister, saying the move exposes "infighting" within the party and shows that it would be a "remote-controlled government".

The Congress has named Satheesan as the next chief minister of Kerala, ending days of suspense and speculation over the matter.

The decision was announced here at a press conference by AICC in-charge of Kerala Deepa Dasmunshi and the party's central observers for the state, Ajay Maken and Mukul Wasnik.

The three main contenders for the post of chief minister were Satheesan, K C Venugopal and Ramesh Chennithala.

In a post on X, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla claimed that the Congress party's central leadership has imposed the decision on the state unit.

"It is clear that Kerala's chief ministerial face has been decided in New Delhi and not in Kerala. The announcement was made from the AICC headquarters in Delhi, which shows that this will be a remote-controlled 'sarkar' (government)," he said.

The BJP leader also claimed there was disagreement within the Gandhi family over the leadership choice in Kerala and alleged that Satheesan was selected due to "pressure from Priyanka Gandhi", who "did not want Rahul Gandhi's candidate K C Venugopal at any cost".

"Priyanka Vadra was dead against Rahul Gandhi's pick of K C Venugopal. In fact, there was a huge family fight over who will call the shots in Kerala," he alleged.

He also blamed the delay in announcing the Congress leader in Kerala on internal differences and pressure from alliance partners.

"After 11 days, finally the Congress party from Delhi has announced the name of V D Satheesan ji as its leader and that means he will be the next CM. This has been done under two pressures. The Jamaat and the IUML had read the riot act to Congress. So this is clear influence of the Muslim vote bank," Poonawalla alleged.

Drawing parallels with the Congress governments in Karnataka, the BJP spokesperson alleged that factional rivalry will continue to trouble the party in Kerala as well.

"It will be the same model as Karnataka Congress sarkar. There it was D K Shivakumar versus Siddaramaiah. Here it will be Satheesan versus K C Venugopal versus Chennithala versus Shashi Tharoor. There will be four-five claimants who will constantly rock the boat," he claimed.

He further alleged that similar internal conflicts had affected Congress governments in states such as Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan.

"So again Kerala people will be bracing themselves for instability," he said.