Congress observers submit Kerala CM report to Kharge

Congress observers submitted their Kerala leadership report to Mallikarjun Kharge after consulting newly-elected MLAs and MPs. Most legislators reportedly support K C Venugopal for chief minister, while public sentiment favours V D Satheesan amid ongoing deliberations

New Delhi: The two Congress observers, appointed to seek the opinion of newly-elected MLAs in Kerala, submitted their report to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday and urged the party high command to take a final decision on the chief ministerial candidate.

Ajay Maken and Mukul Wasnik spoke to all the Congress MLAs as well as party MPs and submitted their observations to the party leadership. The duo had gone to Kerala on Wednesday and met all the legislators and MPs on Thursday before returning to the national capital.

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Sources said a majority of the party MLAs are in support of making AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal the chief minister while the public is favouring senior party leader V D Satheesan, who was the leader of opposition in the outgoing Kerala assembly.

Maken and Wasnik discussed with Kharge the observations made by the new party legislators when they met each one of the them individually. They have also spoken to the party MPs and some ex-MPs, the sources said. Besides Venugopal and Satheesan, senior party leader Ramesh Chennithala is also in the race for chief ministership.

The sources said Kharge has called all the three contenders for talks before taking a final decision.
They said Venugopal is also keen on assuming the role of chief minister and is using his influence with the party leadership for the selection. His proximity to Rahul Gandhi is also well known and that may come in his favour. The Congress won 63 seats of its own in the 140-member assembly, while the United Democratic Front (UDF) alliance has won 102 seats staging a comeback in the southern state.