New Delhi: Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi will take the final decision on the new Kerala chief minister and the name will be announced very soon, the party said on Saturday and urged UDF workers to stop campaigns for various leaders in the state.
Congress’ top brass held an over three-hour meeting to discuss government formation in Kerala in the national capital. The meeting convened by Kharge at his residence was attended by Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary in-charge of the state, Deepa Dasmunshi, General Secretary, Organisation, K C Venugopal, and senior Kerala leaders Ramesh Chennithala and V D Satheesan.
Venugopal, Satheesan and Chennithala are considered to be the frontrunners in the race for the CM’s post.
“Everyone expressed their views, and Rahulji heard them patiently. The final decision on the chief minister will be taken by the Congress high command, and whatever decision is made will be accepted by all,” Chennithala said.
Kerala Congress unit chief Sunny Joseph and senior observers, Ajay Maken and Mukul Wasnik, were also present.
“Very soon, in due time, we will get our final decision by our high command,” Dasmunshi told reporters after the meeting when asked about the new chief minister in Kerala.
“Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi will take the final decision,” she said when asked as to “who in the high command will take the call”.
“All Congress MLAs have signed a one-line resolution authorising the high command to make the final decision,” she said.
Referring to protests by various factions in the winning Congress-led UDF alliance in Kerala in the last two days over the issue of the chief ministerial candidate, she said some unruly incidents have happened and they are not part of the Congress culture and urged the party workers to put an end to them.
“People have given us a landslide majority and those unruly incidents are not our Congress culture. We are urging all our workers to stop this kind of activity,” she told reporters.
When pressed further about the announcement of the chief minister’s name, she replied, “We will have a final decision very soon.
“23rd May is the last day. I think in due time, we will get the final decision by our high command and we are waiting for that. In due time, the due course of action will be taken. The final decision has to be taken by the high command.”
Dasmunshi was flanked by Congress leaders from the state.
Satheesan said that the party has scored a historic and brilliant win in Kerala Assembly polls due to the hard work by all, but subsequently, there have been demonstrations, social media campaigns and putting up of flexboards with regarding the CM selection that has created an image of division in the party.
“We are all together requesting that – please do not carry out such demonstrations and campaigns for any of us. It will hurt Congress workers, the UDF activists and the large number of people who voted for us,” he said.
He urged all UDF workers that no campaigns of this kind should be held, and all flexboards across the state in this regard should be removed.
“We humbly request that there be no more demonstrations,” Satheesan said.
Endorsing his views, Venugopal said that people gave a huge victory to them and want a UDF government that will work for them. “There have been some unfortunate incidents. They should be ended.”
He said that for all Congress members, the party and the people are the most important.
While noting that there is nothing wrong with a section of people preferring a certain leader, he said campaigns tarnishing the image of others should be stopped.
Chennithala said the meeting of Kerala leaders was held at the residence of the Congress President, where the political situation in Kerala after the election in Thiruvananthapuram was discussed.
The senior Congress leader said they have also decided that there will be no demonstrations in Kerala. Flexboards should not be put up and publicity highlighting individual leaders should not be carried out, he said.
“This (campaigns, demonstrations) should all be ended so that it does not tarnish the image of the party before the people,” he said.
Joseph said they have assured that the Congress high command’s decision regarding the CM will be unanimously accepted by everyone.
“We all want the unfortunate incidents that took place recently to be corrected. We request all party workers and supporters to cooperate with us in this regard,” he said.
