IUML’s ‘public sentiment’ stand ensures Satheesan’s elevation

Kozhikode: The principled and calibrated public stance taken by IUML and key UDF allies that the next chief ministerial choice should align with the popular sentiment behind UDF's sweeping mandate ultimately proved decisive in shifting the political momentum in favour of VD Satheesan, who led the front in assembly elections.At a time when intense lobbying and factional manoeuvring had gripped the Congress party over its chief ministerial candidate, IUML consistently said that the public verdict was widely perceived as an endorsement of Satheesan's leadership and his anti-LDF campaign over the last five years.IUML leaders held their ground when Congress leaders and AICC leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi sought their opinion. They took the moral high ground that their stand in favour of Satheesan was not out of a personal preference among the three CM contenders but as a question of respecting the mandate of the people.Publicly, IUML was careful to avoid naming Satheesan directly as its preferred choice. Instead, leaders – including party supremo Panakkad Sadikali Shihab Thangal – repeatedly asserted that public sentiment should guide the decision on leadership matters. In Kerala's political context, however, the message was unmistakable.Sources said IUML sought the continuation of ‘Team UDF' spirit that had powered the coalition's electoral resurgence over the past few years and brought it to power to form the new govt. The party's assessment was that Satheesan had become the principal face of the opposition's campaign against LDF over the past five years and replacing him at the final stage could create a disconnect between the mandate and the eventual leadership outcome.IUML's intervention reportedly went far beyond a public message. Sources said senior IUML leaders conveyed directly to the Congress high command that the political mood in Kerala strongly favoured Satheesan and ignoring that sentiment could weaken the coalition's momentum in future electoral battles, including the next Lok Sabha elections.IUML reportedly argued against any arrangement that would also necessitate a byelection, maintaining that forcing the front into an avoidable electoral exercise immediately after securing a massive mandate would be politically imprudent.IUML's position acquired greater weight as speculation intensified around the possible elevation of AICC general secretary K C Venugopal with a majority of Congress MLAs favouring him. In parts of Malabar, Congress legislators, perceived to be aligned with Venugopal, reportedly faced resistance from cadres. Sources said even planned victory celebrations by some MLAs had to be deferred after resistance emerged from UDF and IUML cadres who were unhappy with attempts to sideline Satheesan.IUML's assessment also stemmed from its own reading of the anti-LDF voter sentiment. The party firmly believed that a large section of voters, who consolidated behind UDF, had done so with the expectation that Satheesan would lead the govt if the front came to power.Sources said the decisive moment came during IUML supremo Sadikali Shihab Thangal's conversation with Sonia Gandhi, in which he is learnt to have conveyed that making Satheesan chief minister would be the ‘true reflection of the people's mandate'. Also, IUML leaders had spoken to Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi who too was quick to sense the argument that public sentiments, seen even in her constituency, should not be overlooked.Interestingly, some Congress MLAs – who are said to have expressed support for Venugopal before AICC observers – later privately conveyed to IUML leaders during post-election thanksgiving visits that their stand had been shaped more by internal party compulsions and expressed their support for IUML's stand on the issue.Senior Congress leader A K Antony too is learnt to have advised the leadership that the views of coalition partners deserved due consideration. Though IUML didn't take an aggressive stand that it would raise dissent if Congress high command chose otherwise, the latter's decision reflected the coalition realities of Kerala politics more than the internal arithmetic in the party.