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The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Kerala passed a one-line resolution authorising the party high command to take the final call on the Chief Ministerial candidate for the next United Democratic Front (UDF) government.
The decision was taken at a CLP meeting held at the Indira Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram in the presence of All India Congress Committee (AICC) observers Mukul Wasnik and Ajay Maken. The resolution was moved by Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Sunny Joseph and was unanimously adopted by newly elected MLAs and senior party leaders.
The move comes days after the Congress-led UDF secured a victory in the 2026 Kerala Assembly elections, with the Congress emerging as the single largest party of the alliance with 63 seats. Meanwhile, central observers met all legislators independently and took down their preferences. The Congress President will make a decision keeping in mind what MLAs want and other factors.
Three senior Congress leaders are being seen as frontrunners for the chief minister’s post: Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan, former KPCC chief and senior leader Ramesh Chennithala, and AICC general secretary and Alappuzha MP K C Venugopal.
Senior leaders, including VM Sudheeran and K Sudhakaran, also held consultations with the observers earlier in the day.
Congress sources told TNM that the observers will submit their report based on the one-on-one conversation with the newly elected legislators and submit a detailed report in the next two days, on which the Congress high command CLP will take the final decision on Kerala’s next chief minister.
The Congress secured a major victory in the Kerala Assembly elections, winning 63 seats individually and 102 seats as the party lead of the UDF and unseating the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) after a decade of ruling.
