VD Satheesan, who served as the Leader of the Opposition for the past five years and is widely credited with revitalising the Congress party’s grassroots base, was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Keralam along with his 20-member Cabinet on Monday. The ceremony formally marked the UDF’s return to power in Keralam after a decade. Several senior Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Mallikarjun Kharge, as well as chief ministers from Congress-ruled states, attended the event. It is noteworthy that while most states that went to the polls alongside Keralam had already appointed their chief ministers soon after the election results, the Congress party took several days to finalise its choice for Keralam. The delay reflected intense deliberations within the party high command as it weighed the claims of the top contenders ” KC Venugopal, Ramesh Chennithala, and VD Satheesan ” amid visible factionalism. Now that Satheesan has assumed office, it is hoped that other senior leaders will set aside their differences and work unitedly in the larger interest of Keralam and the stability of the new government.
