Chennithala skips party meet, signals discontent

T'puram: Signs of discontent have emerged within the Congress party after the high command selected V D Satheesan as Kerala's next chief minister. Senior leader Ramesh Chennithala expressed strong dissatisfaction over being overlooked in the leadership race. Party sources said Chennithala conveyed his protest directly to Rahul Gandhi and skipped the Congress legislature party meeting convened to formally elect Satheesan as leader. He also reportedly informed the party leadership that he does not wish to join the new cabinet. Chennithala submitted a letter of support for the high command's decision to the KPCC president before leaving Thiruvananthapuram for Guruvayur, where he offered prayers on the first day of the Malayalam month. Sources said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge subsequently spoke to him in an effort to address his concerns. According to party insiders, Chennithala held a discussion of over half an hour with Rahul Gandhi after the leadership decision was finalised. He pointed out that this was the third occasion on which his seniority had been overlooked. During the conversation, Chennithala reminded Gandhi that in 2021, despite commanding majority support within the CLP, he had quietly accepted the high command's decision to appoint Satheesan as opposition leader, maintaining party discipline without public protest. Chennithala also raised the recent reconstitution of the Congress working committee, in which Shashi Tharoor was inducted as a full member while he was included only as a permanent invitee. He conveyed to Gandhi that, despite decades of organisational and electoral experience, he increasingly felt sidelined within the party. Congress workers in Haripad, his home constituency, said they had expected the leadership to honour his seniority and long service by entrusting him with the chief minister's post. Chennithala stopped to meet party workers in Haripad on his way to Guruvayur.