New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday summoned a group of senior Kerala Congress figures to 10 Janpath for private, one-on-one consultations as the AICC prepared to settle on the state’s next Chief Minister.
He sought their assessments of the three leading contenders — K.C. Venugopal, V.D. Satheesan and Ramesh Chennithala — and pressed them to explain recent street demonstrations in Kerala, asking whether those displays were spontaneous public support or staged campaigns by interested groups, with the party expected to announce its decision within 24–48 hours, as reported by the Economic Times.
During the meeting, attendees included former PCC chiefs V.M. Sudheeran, K. Muraleedharan and K. Sudhakaran; working presidents A.P. Anilkumar and P.C. Vishnunath; Shafi Parambil; and senior leader Thiruvanjur Radhakrishnan, who also phoned former PCC chiefs A.K. Antony and Mullapally Ramachandran while discussions were underway.
Sources said Gandhi asked each of them to state their preferred candidate and to comment on the recent street-level lobbying that has pushed certain names into the spotlight; he sought to establish whether demonstrations were spontaneous expressions of support or choreographed shows of “people’s sentiments,” a practice the high command has sought to rein in.
Participants were tight-lipped after the consultations and, according to party sources, returned mixed recommendations on the three main contenders and on whether the high command should decide based principally on the preferences of Congress MLAs and senior state leaders or factor in the views of UDF allies — notably the Indian Union Muslim League, which has publicly backed Satheesan.
AICC observers who had attended CLP discussions in Kerala were also reported to be sending detailed feedback to Delhi to inform the decision-making process.
With the high command widely seen as ready to announce its choice, the IUML convened a meeting of senior leaders in Kerala on Wednesday to prepare its response should the AICC reach out, and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge returned to Delhi from Bengaluru on Tuesday evening to join final deliberations at party headquarters.
Some reports indicated that the party expected to name its pick within 24–48 hours, and that senior contenders such as Ramesh Chennithala had signalled willingness to accept the high command’s decision.
