Congress prepares for Kerala polls

By declaring the campaign committee for the Kerala Assembly polls slated for April, the Congress has given rise to speculation regarding its Chief Ministerial face.

- PANKAJ VOHRA

As of now, no one is to be projected for the position, and the nominee would be finalized once the poll results are out and the picture is clear.

Kerala is the most literate state in the country and has had a tradition of rotating strike so far as power is concerned. However, the last time, it was the Left Democratic Front led by CPM's Pinarayi Vijayan, the sitting CM, that retained power, thus breaking this cycle. In other words, the LDF won both in 2016 and 2021 thus preventing the Congress-led United Democratic Front from wresting power.

There is a section in the Congress which believes that the announcement of the campaign committee, which has Ramesh Chennithala as the convener and Shashi Tharoor as the co-convener, has been constituted to ensure that the decks would be cleared for the elevation of Rahul Gandhi's principal adviser K.C. Venugopal to take over as the CM, in the event of the party winning.

Congress politics has many layers and the mere declaration of the campaign committee cannot be construed as a decision regarding who the CM would be. There are multiple leaders in the state who can be entrusted with the position including Venugopal, Ramesh Chennithala, Shashi Tharoor, the PCC president Sunny Joseph and any of his predecessors. The focus to begin would be to first secure a majority and then leave the final decision on the high command.