Split tenure plan for Kerala CM post shot down in Delhi during Congress leadership talks

THe consultations for choosing a chief government minister for Kerala seems to feature ended us congress’s rendezvous with a disputative concept — secret power sharings arrangement between two chief ministerial aspirants as exhibited in Chattisgarh 2018 and Karnataka 2023. HT learns that at some point in the 10 days of negotiations, a power sharing arrangement was floated but dismissed by party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi.According to two persons aware of the details, when someone suggested KC Venugopal take the CM’s chair for 2.5 years and then vacate it for VD Satheesan, the final arbiters- -Kharge and Gandhi- -said this formula had failed to hold. On Thursday, the party announced their choice as VD Satheesan, the 61-year-old leader of opposition. There were no deputy chief ministers announced.Also read | 'A CM shouldn't cry like this': VD Satheesan's emotional visit to late mentor's home | WatchIt’s a realization that many feel should have happened earlier, at least before a similar arrangement was worked out between Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar. Because by then, chief minister Bhupesh Baghel had gone back on his promise to make way for TS Singh Deo in Raipur. To be sure, these power sharing arrangements have never been talked about openly as by doing so, it would undermine the chief minister’s position as one who was only temporary. However, in both states, supporters of the parties involved have often raised these arrangements to demand their respective leaders’ share.“These are things that take place behind the scenes we cant talk about it openly”, is all that Deo would say when contacted by HT on Friday. The fact that such an arrangement was worked out with Rahul Gandhi as witness in 2018 didn’t have any sway when Baghel paraded a majority of the legislators as a show of strength. In fact, the subsequent elections also saw Congress get a drubbing because of infighting between the two leaders in the run-up and during the campaign. Similarly, the tension between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar has been a constant in Karnataka since government formation in 2023.Also read | Student leader to state head: Rise of VD SatheesanNeither did Kharge’s office nor Gandhi’s. Or observers involved with the selection process, respond to HT’s queries.However, election manager to both Deo and DK Shivakumar, Naresh Arora said that Congress has paid dearly for such an arrangement. “Despite that (Chattisgarh) experience, similar conversations continued to surface elsewhere, including Karnataka, where even after spending nearly ₹52,000 crore annually on welfare guarantees, the dominant political conversation remains whether Siddaramaiah will eventually make way for D.K. Shivakumar,’’ he said, adding, “A Chief Minister functioning under constant transition pressure inevitably spends more energy protecting the chair than governing the state. Such arrangements rarely create stability; they institutionalise insecurity.”The other idea that Congress seemed to have cooled on is having deputy chief ministers, the power sharing that was worked out between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot in 2018. Like Chhattisgarh and Karnataka, Gehlot too used his position to consolidate his support among MLAs, leading to bitterness inside the party.HT reached out to Sachin Pilot also but didn’t get any response.