CM decision likely today, say leaders after Delhi talks

Thiruvananthapuram: After eight days of suspense, speculation, protests, social media campaigns and rounds of closed-door negotiations, the Congress top brass is inching towards a final decision on the state's next chief minister. Sources said a final discussion involving party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi was likely to seal the decision.The AICC leadership on Tuesday completed a fresh round of consultations with senior party leaders from the state in New Delhi. The party had summoned former KPCC presidents V M Sudheeran, Mullappally Ramachandran, K Muraleedharan, K Sudhakaran and M M Hassan, along with working presidents P C Vishnunath, Shafi Parambil and A P Anil Kumar, and senior MLA Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan to the capital. The leaders who met Rahul said the announcement was likely to come on Wednesday. Leaders across factions reportedly agreed that the decision should not be delayed any further.Sources said Rahul primarily focused on the recent protests and public demonstrations in the state over the delay in naming the CM. During the discussions, he is learnt to have sought an explanation from leaders regarding the coordinated show of strength and specifically asked who was behind them.The issue figured prominently during the consultations, with several leaders reportedly observing that the protests would not have ended immediately after the party leadership directed against them if they were entirely spontaneous public reactions. Some leaders are understood to have described the protests as "orchestrated" rather than organic, pointing out that they stopped "as if a switch had been turned off".Leaders backing K C Venugopal reportedly conveyed to Rahul that the protests were aimed at mounting pressure on the high command during the ongoing leadership discussions. At the same time, other leaders urged Rahul to factor in the public sentiment.Hassan downplayed the role of coalition partners in the final decision-making process amid speculations over the IUML reaction on the delay. Responding to questions if the reaction will be considered, Hassan said allied parties would have only limited influence in the selection process.Reiterating that the final decision would come by Wednesday morning, Muraleedharan said the Congress high command would consider public sentiment, the mood among party workers and the views of UDF allies before arriving at a final decision. He also said he had urged Rahul to resolve the issue quickly as the prolonged uncertainty was creating anxiety within both the party and the alliance.Muraleedharan stressed that the choice of chief minister would not be based solely on the numerical strength of leaders backing different contenders. "If numbers alone were the criteria, the announcement could have been made long ago," he remarked, adding that the leadership would weigh many political and organisational factors.Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan defended the ongoing consultation process, saying the leadership wanted greater clarity before arriving at a final decision. While acknowledging public impatience following the UDF's massive electoral victory, he noted that Kerala's political history had rarely seen a chief minister chosen overnight."The responsibility of the leadership is to restore normalcy from an extraordinary situation, and that process is currently underway," he said. Rejecting speculation that the delay was due to fears of protests after the final announcement, he said the consultation process was a natural part of democratic decision-making within the party.