New Delhi | The Congress will announce its chief ministerial pick in Kerala on Thursday, the party said here after days of suspense, intense lobbying and marathon discussions.
After an almost 40-minute meeting between Rahul Gandhi and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge at the latter's residence, party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the decision on the next Kerala chief minister will be announced tomorrow as the party high command has completed all discussions in this regard.
The suspense over the party's pick would end 10 days after the results of the assembly elections were declared. The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) had won over two-thirds majority in the Kerala Assembly polls.
"As authorised by the members of the CLP in Kerala, the high command of the Congress has completed all discussions, and the decision on who the next chief minister of Kerala will be will be announced tomorrow," Ramesh said.
All democratic practices and processes will be followed in announcing the chief minister's name, a senior leader, who did not wish to be named, said, indicating that the CM nominee may be revealed in Kerala.
AICC general secretary for organisation, K C Venugopal, Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Kerala assembly, V D Satheesan, and senior party leader Ramesh Chennithala are among those in the race for the post.
The party has been grappling with its chief ministerial pick and has held several rounds of discussions with local leaders and former party chiefs in the state.
Rahul Gandhi had previously met several leaders from Kerala and around eight former state unit chiefs to ascertain the ground situation.
Protests at the ground level by party workers had prompted the party leadership to hold discussions with state leaders before finalising the next chief minister.
Congress' allies in the UDF favour Satheesan, who also enjoys huge support among the public as well as party workers on the ground. However, with the powerful AICC general secretary Venugopal throwing his hat in the ring, the choice has not been easy for the party high command.
Kerala is the fourth southern state where the Congress is in power. It has governments in Karnataka and Telangana and has joined hands with the ruling TVK in Tamil Nadu after the recent polls.
Thiruvananthapuram | A group of eminent writers and cultural activists in Kerala on Wednesday came out strongly against the continuing impasse in the Congress-led UDF over the selection of the next chief minister.
In a statement, they alleged that attempts were being made to "subvert the people's mandate" by installing a leader who did not contest the Assembly polls.
The signatories to the statement included noted writer and poet Kalpetta Narayanan, who is widely seen as sympathetic to the Congress and UDF, besides writers and cultural figures such as Sara Joseph, M N Karassery, K G Sankara Pillai, U K Kumaran and S Joseph.
In the strongly-worded joint statement, the writers said they had "never before seen" the leadership party of a front that won a massive majority "struggle in such confusion" over the selection of a chief minister.
"It has been 10 days since the election results were declared on May 4, but neither the state leadership nor the national leadership of the Congress has been able to resolve the issue," the statement said.
The writers alleged that the ongoing deadlock stemmed either from the inability to understand the spirit of the people's verdict or from attempts by certain leaders to impose their own agenda despite the mandate.
"What the people are witnessing are conspiratorial moves and influence operations within the leadership to install as chief minister a person who did not even contest the election, thereby hijacking the people's verdict," they alleged.
The statement further said that in a democracy, newly-elected legislators should elect their leader from among themselves and "external interests" should not be imposed on the process.
The writers acknowledged that political parties may sometimes have to bring in a leader from outside the legislature if a pre-declared chief ministerial candidate loses an election, but argued that no such extraordinary situation existed in Kerala now.
"The present uncertainty has been artificially created and clearly bears signs of conspiracy and planning," the statement alleged.
Describing the developments as "a protest-worthy assault on democratic values", the writers urged the Congress leadership to "correct its mistakes even at this late stage" and protect both the people's mandate and democratic conventions.
They also called upon cultural activists and socially committed political thinkers to observe Wednesday as "Democracy Protection Day" and appealed to the public to unite in protest against what they termed a "grave political betrayal".
The statement comes amid an intensifying leadership tussle within the Congress after the UDF's emphatic victory in the recent Kerala Assembly elections.
The Congress high command has been holding hectic consultations over the past several days to break the deadlock over the chief minister's post, with three senior leaders -- V D Satheesan, K C Venugopal and Ramesh Chennithala -- emerging as the main contenders.
While Satheesan and Chennithala are elected MLAs, Venugopal, a senior Congress leader and close aide of the party's national leadership, did not contest the Assembly polls, making his possible elevation a subject of sharp political debate in the state.