Remote-controlled Govt: BJP slams Congress over Kerala CM pick

The BJP on Thursday took a dig at the Congress, saying that its decision to appoint VD Satheesan as the next Kerala chief minister exposes “infighting” within the party and shows that it would be a “remote-controlled Government”.

The BJP asserted that the chief ministerial pick was not the choice of Congress MLAs but of its ally, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which is the second-largest constituent of the coalition United Democratic Front (UDF).

The Congress on Thursday named Satheesan as the next Kerala chief minister, ending days of suspense and speculation. The decision was announced at a press conference here by AICC Kerala in-charge Deepa Dasmunshi and the party’s central observers for the state, Ajay Maken and Mukul Wasnik.

The three main contenders for the post were Satheesan, KC Venugopal and Ramesh Chennithala.

In a social media post, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said the decision was imposed on the state unit by the Congress’s central leadership.

“It is clear that Kerala’s chief ministerial face was decided in New Delhi and not in Kerala. The announcement was made from the AICC headquarters in Delhi, which shows that this will be a remote-controlled ‘sarkar’ (Government),” he said.

The BJP leader also claimed that there was disagreement within the Gandhi family over the leadership choice in Kerala.

He alleged that Satheesan was selected due to “pressure from Priyanka Gandhi” who “did not want Rahul Gandhi’s candidate K C Venugopal at any cost”.

“Priyanka Vadra was dead against Rahul Gandhi’s pick, K C Venugopal. In fact, there was a huge family fight over who would call the shots in Kerala,” he claimed.

Poonawalla also blamed internal differences and pressure from alliance partners for the Congress’s delay in announcing the new Kerala chief minister.

“After 11 days, the Congress party from Delhi has finally announced the name of V D Satheesan ji as the next Kerala chief minister. This has been done under two pressures. The Jamaat and the IUML had read the riot act to Congress. So, this is the clear influence of the Muslim vote bank,” he alleged.

Drawing parallels with the Congress Government in Karnataka, the BJP spokesperson alleged that factional rivalry will continue to trouble the party in Kerala as well.

“It will be the same model as the Karnataka Congress sarkar. There it was DK Shivakumar versus Siddaramaiah. Here it will be Satheesan versus KC Venugopal versus Chennithala versus Shashi Tharoor. There will be four to five claimants, who will constantly rock the boat,” he claimed.

He said similar internal conflicts had affected Congress Governments in states such as Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan.

“So, again, Kerala people will be bracing themselves for instability,” he said.

A decision on the next Kerala chief minister face had been pending since May 4 when the Congress-led UDF bagged 102 seats out of the 140, which was more than a two-thirds majority.

Asserting that decision-making in the Congress requires the approval of the IUML and allied religious groups, BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said in a post, “It is clearly evident that the new Congress chief ministerial pick from Kerala was not the choice of the Congress MLAs but of the IUML.”

Terming the Congress the “new Muslim League”, Bhandari said the Gandhi-Vadra family has once again shown that it listened to the dictates of the IUML.

“The remote control of the Congress and the Gandhi-Vadra family is with the IUML. The Congress today is nothing short of a modern-day Muslim League. The Congress is the Muslim League-Maoist Congress,” he alleged.

The Congress has 63 MLAs in the 140-member Kerala Assembly. Among its allies, IUML has 22 seats, Kerala Congress (KEC) has eight, and the Revolutionary Socialist Party has three MLAs.