VD Satheesan pips KC Venugopal to Kerala CM post: Does it signal power shift within Congress?

NEW DELHI: After 10 days of high-voltage drama (read embarrassment), the Congress on Thursday finally announced V D Satheesan as its chief minister pick for Kerala - a state it won with a thumping margin to end the 10-year rule of the CPM-led Left Front.Ironically, Kerala, which gave the most overwhelming verdict in this round of assembly elections, will get its government last. The BJP, which won West Bengal and Assam with convincing margins, acted with urgency and installed its governments. Even Vijay, despite not having a majority, moved faster than the Congress, became the chief minister of Tamil Nadu and even won the trust vote.The delay notwithstanding, what makes Satheesan’s appointment truly significant is the fact that he managed to pip a party heavyweight K C Venugopal to the top post. Venugopal, who is the AICC general secretary (organisation), is a close confidant of Rahul Gandhi and one of the most prominent Congress faces at the Centre. Reports suggested that his candidature had the backing of Rahul.Satheesan struck a careful balance between gratitude, humility and political messaging in his first reaction after being chosen by the Congress high command as the 13th chief minister of the state, declaring that the massive UDF victory belonged not to an individual leader but to “Team UDF” and lakhs of party workers.Venugopal, on his part, accepted the party’s decision and congratulated Satheesan. "So, that is my stand now. I humbly accept the party high command decision and will work to implement it. I am a loyal Congressman. For me the party is everything. I don't want an image at the cost of the party. I want to die shrouded in the party flag. Will give all support to the government in Kerala," Venugopal said.So, basically the race for Kerala’s chief minister post became a fight between a state heavyweight who had spearheaded the Congress campaign against the Left rule for five years and a national heavyweight who wielded great clout in running the party.This was not just an uneven contest but also a very difficult one for Satheesan. We all know Rahul Gandhi holds no post in the party after he quit as president in 2019 but he influences all important decisions taken by it. So, Satheesan was basically up against Rahul’s reported preferred choice for the CM’s post. Logically, if Venugopal was not Rahul’s choice, why would he be there in the race leaving his national responsibilities.The fact that the state heavyweight could emerge a winner despite that suggests the strong backing his candidature would have got from others who matter in the party. Two others besides Rahul who matter in the Congress are from the Gandhi family - Sonia and Priyanka. Clearly, Satheesan would have had the backing of at least one of them. Who is that one person we do not know and perhaps we will never know. But what we know is that besides these two, perhaps no one else can have a bigger influence than Rahul in taking key decisions.That perhaps explains why the decision to announce the next chief minister of Kerala involved such hectic parleys and took a long time. There were several rounds of consultations from Kerala to New Delhi. The Congress top leadership held meetings with the contenders. The party observers took views of the 63 newly elected MLAs. Interestingly, Congress did not contradict reports that bulk of the new MLAs had favoured K C Venugopal for the top post - fortifying his claims.Perhaps Rahul and the Congress leadership knew that deciding CM on the basis of MLAs preference would be fraught with dangers as not many of them would have the courage to oppose Venugopal given his proximity to Rahul Gandhi and the resultant clout he wields in the party.With neither of the two contenders willing to back down, Rahul held one-on-one deliberations with eight former state Congress chiefs at Sonia Gandhi's 10, Janpath residence to assess the mood on the ground. The fact that these meetings were held at Sonia’s residence points to her intervention in ending this impasse. Some reports citing sources claim that it was Sonia’s intervention that finally settled the issue.Priyanka Gandhi, who is the party MP from Wayanad in Kerala, did not speak on the issue in the last 10 days. However, her opinion would have definitely weighed on the Congress decision-makers.Satheesan’s eventual appointment would suggest that most of these leaders would have picked him over KC Venugopal. Clearly, the Congress general secretary would perhaps be left wondering why he lost the race despite Rahul’s backing. Is the power centre within the Congress shifting?