Satheesan-Chennithala tug-of-war getting stronger inside Congress

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Already prophesying a big win in the 2026 assembly elections, the tug of war for power between V.D. Satheesan and Ramesh Chennithala is getting stronger inside the congress camp. Both leaders are working on ways to gain the trust of community organizations to easily access the chief minister’s chair.

V. D. Satheesan called a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday while all news cameras were glued to the Mannam Jayanthi celebrations in Perunna which was attended by Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala. In the presser, Satheesan alleged that the Kerala Finance Corporation invested Rs 60.80 crore in Anil Ambani's company during the first Pinarayi government and incurred a loss of Rs 101 crore.

Moments later, Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan held a press conference against the Chief Minister's daughter Veena Vijayan when Chennithala was speaking at the Mannam Jayanti conference.

It requires no special political understanding to spot that the time chosen for both pressers was not a coincidence but was aimed to reduce the political importance and media attention of the program attended by Chennithala.

In 2021, after V D Satheesan became the leader of the opposition by ousting Chennithala, a cold war started in the congress camp. Whenever Satheesan came up with a press conference against CM, Chennithala used to follow suit and call another presser. Chennithala brought out the corruption stories including the sprinkler which made his importance tower even higher than Satheesan.

Satheesan, who had distanced himself from the leaders of NSS and SNDP, soon became closer with Muslim and Christian organisations. Satheesan even got an invitation to the Maramon Convention while Chennithala received NSS's invitation to attend this year's Mannam Jayanti conference.

At the same time, another popular community leader Vellapalli Natesan backed Ramesh over Satheesan to be the next chief minister of Kerala. Chennithala was invited to two programs of Samasta in Malappuram.

Chennithala was estranged from NSS for 10 years over Sukumaran Nair's old remark that triggered a big debate in Congress.