New Delhi, May 11 A quick decision on support on the part of the Congress leadership has helped the formation of the Tamil Nadu government, though upsetting a former ally, but in Kerala, uncertainty over naming a Chief Minister has again exposed the deep structural weaknesses within the party.
In Tamil Nadu, the Congress pulled out of its alliance with the M.K. Stalin-led DMK to support the TVK that put former cine star Vijay in the Chief Minister’s chair with the help of some other parties.
On the other hand, the Kerala episode reflects the Congress high command’s failure at managing ambition, succession, and public perception, though it seeks to position itself as the national challenger to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Meanwhile, a smouldering power struggle continues for the top job in Karnataka in a stark reminder of a similar tug-of-war said to have led to an electoral setback in Rajasthan some time back.
In Kerala, the Congress‑led United Democratic Front (UDF) won a strong anti‑incumbency mandate, but even a week later, the party has still not named a Chief Minister. Three names dominate the field: V. D. Satheesan, the Leader of the Opposition and the most visible face of the campaign; Ramesh Chennithala, a veteran with pan‑Kerala clout; and K. C. Venugopal, considered a close Rahul Gandhi aide.
The latter’s national stature and organisational backing apparently make him a preferred option for the Congress high command. The delay is not just procedural; it reflects a party caught between "intra‑party support" within the Congress Legislature Party and "public sentiment" that associates the mandate with Satheesan.
Internal dissent has surfaced in the form of protest marches and social‑media campaigns, with the Satheesan camp challenging the idea of a "remote‑control" choice from Delhi.
The Congress leadership fears that any perception of imposing a Chief Minister from outside the state’s immediate political calculus could erode the very goodwill the UDF has just won.
Additionally, reports also suggest an earlier Punjab trauma, where projecting Charanjit Singh Channi as Chief Minister ahead of the 2022 polls backfired and exposed factionalism. Thus, the central leadership now seems reluctant to openly anoint a face even after the vote.
In Kerala, this caution has caused decision paralysis, raising questions about whether the party can actually govern decisively once in power. The uncertainty rises with the Congress still grappling with a leadership standoff in Karnataka that has barely cooled since the 2023 Assembly win. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar remain locked in a bitter contest over succession, with each faction urging the central leadership to either anoint one of them or at least set a clear timeline for a transfer of power.
The purported political formula – keeping both ambitions within the same cabinet – has stopped looking like "balance" and increasingly resembles a ticking institutional time‑bomb. What Kerala and Karnataka have in common is that despite a favourable mandate, the party’s internal arithmetic is cluttered by multiple claimants and a reluctance to make unambiguous, early calls.
Adding to the Congress’s headache is the recent political reality in Rajasthan, where the party lost power to the BJP despite a sizeable vote share. The 2023 assembly results got the BJP with 115 seats and the Congress 70, underlining the party’s failure to convert strong voter sentiment into a working majority. For a national leadership trying to project Congress as the main opposition bloc, the Rajasthan outcome is a sobering reminder of how regional fissures, anti‑incumbency, and the BJP’s local social‑engineering can neutralise even robust voter support. The loss also complicates the party’s narrative of being a "stable alternative" at the state level, especially when intra‑party squabbles – such as those in Karnataka and now Kerala – underscore internal instability. Rajasthan’s recent civic‑body elections, where the Congress did relatively well in local bodies, offer some solace, but they do little to offset the psychological impact of losing the Assembly.
The party’s central leaders, mainly party President Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, appear to be trying to balance regional egos, generational shifts, and national image, while still being wary of the "remote control" tag that has plagued the party for decades. Their manoeuvres – with long-drawn meetings and parleys – are being seen more as a delay tactics rather than a resolution.
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