Kerala calling KC? Rahul Gandhi's main man Venugopal in CM race in home state

KC Venugopal has spent years running company matters for the u.s. Congress from new delhi. The call into question at present is whether he gets to run a government from Thiruvananthapuram.The Congress-led United Democratic Front's (UDF) decisive victory in the Kerala assembly elections — 102 seats in a 140-member House, with Congress alone winning 63 — has set off a three-cornered contest for the chief ministership that points to some divisions between the party's central leadership and its state-level workers.Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, who is Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, were yet to announce a final decision as of Sunday night, even as May 23, the deadline for government formation, draws closer.Venugopal, 63, is at the centre of the suspense. Since 2019, he has served as General Secretary (Organisation) of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) — effectively the party's chief administrator, with key roles in candidate selection, organisational discipline, membership drives and alliance management.Venugopal is often described as the "main link" between the Congress high command and its state units, with most internal party decisions running through his office. And he is widely regarded as among the most trusted figures in the Rahul Gandhi-Kharge leadership.He sits right next to Gandhi in the Lok Sabha, to his left. His Kerala credentials are considerable too. A three-time MLA from Alappuzha between 1996 and 2009, he served as the state's minister for tourism under the late Oommen Chandy before moving to national politics. He won the Alappuzha Lok Sabha seat in 2009 and 2014, and served as a junior minister in the Union government, with portfolios such as power and civil aviation during UPA-2 under Manmohan Singh.In the 2026 Kerala campaign, news agency PTI noted citing sources, Venugopal helped bring disgruntled CPI(M) leaders of the then ruling LDF into the UDF.Who backs whom, and what about that paper?A majority of the party's legislators reportedly back Venugopal for the top post, with news agency PTI and some news channels citing unnamed sources to say his support could be 50 of 63 Congress MLAs. AICC observers Mukul Wasnik and Ajay Maken submitted their findings to Kharge on Friday after one-on-one meetings with all 63.A photograph captured by a newspaper photographer appeared to show a document in Wasnik's hands listing several MLAs — including state unit chief Sunny Joseph — as preferring Venugopal. Wasnik denied the document was accurate.But MLA arithmetic is only part of the story. PTI also cited sources to say the public's preference may lie with VD Satheesan.Venugopal's rival contendersA six-time MLA from Paravur, Satheesan staked his political career on this election. He had publicly declared before the campaign that he would "go into political exile" if the UDF did not return to power. He did not have to.After serving as Leader of Opposition in the assembly for five years, he won his own seat by over 20,600 votes. Congress workers organised demonstrations in his favour across at least five districts, HT has reported. Student activists in Delhi turned out to receive him on his late-night arrival in the capital. Satheesan appealed for restraint, posting on Facebook that workers should "desist from installing flex boards and protesting on the streets through factions", but the pressure campaign propping him up has been visible.Venugopal also spoke on that: “There have been some unfortunate incidents. These should be ended.”Satheesan has also the backing of the the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) that has 22 legislators. The Kerala Congress (KEC) has won eight seats and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) three. The Congress has 63, thus not majority of its own; and the UDF has won a total of 102 of 140 seats, which is more than a two-thirds majority.A third contender, Ramesh Chennithala, 69, brings the longest political resumé of the three. A six-time MLA from Haripad, he became the youngest minister in Kerala's history at 28, serving under CM K Karunakaran in 1986. He has been the state Congress unit president, president of the party's wing National Students Union of India (NSUI), home minister under Oommen Chandy, and leader of the opposition.Under his stewardship, the UDF swept Kerala in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, winning 19 of 20 seats.Against him weighs the 2021 assembly poll defeat. That loss broke a four-decade streak of alternating governments in Kerala, with the LDF managing a consecutive victory.On Saturday, Kharge convened a meeting at his Delhi residence that lasted over three hours, attended by Rahul Gandhi, state in-charge Deepa Dasmunsi, and all three CM contenders, among others. “Everyone expressed their views and Rahulji heard them patiently,” Chennithala said afterwards to PTI."The final decision on the chief minister will be taken by the Congress high command," he said. Congress leader K Muraleedharan added on Sunday that party workers were "bound to accept" whatever the high command announced.Venugopal did not contest the Kerala assembly elections. A move to the state would require him to win a bypoll within six months of taking office. But that's only a logistical complication, if he can manage the political bit.Tailpiece: Where Tharoor standsFormer Union minister Shashi Tharoor's name circulated briefly in Delhi media circles as a dark horse. He is a four-term Thiruvananthapuram MP with a national profile that perhaps none of the three frontrunners can match. He put the speculation to rest himself."Ideally, the CM should be picked from elected MLAs," he said, a formulation that ruled him out while possibly underlining that Venugopal did not contest the assembly elections either.