The race has narrowed down to between national general secretary KC Venugopal and Opposition leader VD Satheesan. While KC is said to have his own bunch of supporters among newly elected MLAs, Satheesan is said to also enjoy the support of alliance partners IUML and Kerala Congress.
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The leadership has realized any hasty announcement will trigger public protests and may spend a day or two to talk to different factions and take them into confidence before announcing the name.
The party leadership concluded talks in Delhi on Saturday in the presence of Satheesan, veteran leader Ramesh Chennithala and Pradesh Congress Committee president Sunny.
AICC observers Mukul Wasnik and Ajay Maken, who met the 63 newly elected MLAs in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday, dropped non-verbal hints that Venugopal enjoyed the support of more Congress MLAs. But Satheesan seem to enjoy a big following among the cadre. The allies have also conveyed to the AICC the central role Satheesan played to lead the party to victory.
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Venugopal, who represents Alappuzha in the Lok Sabha, has been nursing ambitions to be the CM. His rival faction argues that his appointment would lead to a bypoll in Alappuzha which the party can avoid by naming an MLA.
