The Congress leadership is trying to placate veteran leader Ramesh Chennithala, who is learnt to be sulking after losing out to V.D. Satheesan in the race for the Kerala chief minister’s chair.
With the Congress high command urging Satheesan to meet Chennithala, the veteran leader initially appeared to be playing hard to get.
Chennithala, who had just arrived at his home in Thiruvananthapuram after offering prayers at the Guruvayoor temple in Thrissur, left to see a relative after Satheesan expressed his desire to meet him on Friday.
After two hours of dilly-dallying, Chennithala finally played host to Satheesan around 12.15pm. A new MLA loyal to Chennithala told The Telegraph that the senior leader was deeply hurt at the turn of events.
“Chennithala had expected to become chief minister. He has not shared his thoughts with us, but what we understand is that he has demanded that his loyalists be included in the cabinet and given key portfolios. It seems he also wants the state Congress chief to be from his camp,” the MLA said.
The AICC general secretary in charge of Kerala, Deepa Das Munshi, was huddled with Chennithala for more than 30 minutes on Friday. Chennithala did not attend the post-victory United Democratic Front meeting on Friday.
Later in the day, K.C. Venugopal, who was the third frontrunner for the chief minister’s post and had the overwhelming support of state Congress MLAs, appeared to have an emotional meltdown when reporters asked him at Thiruvananthapuram airport whether he was “disappointed”.
“Are you all still not satisfied even after tearing me apart? My utmost desire is to die a Congressman. I’m a dedicated and committed party worker who will abide by whatever the Congress high command decides. The issues Chennithala is facing will be amicably addressed,” he said.
Small convoy
Satheesan announced on Friday that he planned to limit his convoy to three vehicles. His predecessor, Pinarayi Vijayan, moved around in a 43-vehicle motorcade. He has also decided to forego the ₹45-lakh black luxury sedan used by Vijayan and instead opted for a white Innova.
