The Indian National Congress is in a severe leadership crisis in Kerala, where it came to power in the state assembly polls with a huge victory, defeating the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) that had ruled the state for the past 10 years after it won 102 seats in the 140-member assembly.
The alliance’s overwhelming victory has sent buzz throughout the state, but the next big battle is for the leadership of Kerala’s next CM. Senior Congress leaders VD Satheesan, Ramesh Chennithala and K C Venugopal are the key candidates for the top job.
All three leaders are in New Delhi right now, with the Congress high command still making talks before it takes a final decision, that is expected in the next 24 hours. The party leaders have met several times along with party observers as there is a lot of intraparty pressure from across Kerala.
The struggle for leadership has been transferred to the streets with supporters of each camp organising rallies, setting up banners and conducting an aggressive poster campaign. After a flex board depicting late former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and KC Venugopal was vandalized and smeared with black oil by unknown people, there was a surge of anger among the party members.
The event came as a big embarrassment for the Congress as it had won a significant election victory. Those who helped deface pictures of senior leaders could not be termed as real Congressmen, Congress MP Rajmohan Unnithan said. Senior leader P J Kurien cautioned against attempts to put pressure on the chief minister’s decision.
In the meantime, there has been a spurt of activity around various possible power-sharing mechanisms and compromise candidates in meetings with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leaders such as Shashi Tharoor.
The Congress leadership is now caught between two demands: on one hand, to clinch a government formation in Kerala after winning the elections and on the other, to accommodate the various factions within the party.