Thiruvananthapuram: With V. D. Satheesan now firmly seated in the driver’s seat of Kerala politics, the celebration within the Congress camp is quickly giving way to the far more complicated and politically explosive exercise of cabinet formation.
And if choosing the Chief Minister itself required 10 days of intense negotiations and delicate balancing, the battle for ministerial berths now threatens to become an even tougher test for both Satheesan and the Congress high command.
The Congress-led UDF may have stormed to power with a commanding 102 seats in the 140-member Assembly, but the arithmetic of power sharing is already casting long shadows over the victory celebrations.
Out of the 102 seats, the Congress alone accounts for an impressive 63 legislators.
Yet, despite the numbers, the party cannot accommodate even a fraction of its ambitious faces.
With the constitutional cap restricting the Kerala cabinet to a maximum of 21 members, including the Chief Minister, the Congress is expected to secure only around a dozen positions once seats are apportioned among coalition partners and the Speaker’s post is set aside.
That is where the real turbulence begins.
As always in Kerala’s coalition politics, cabinet-making is not merely about seniority or performance.
Every berth is weighed against a complex matrix of regional representation, caste equations, religious balance, community influence, and factional compulsions.
And this time, the queue outside the ministerial gates is exceptionally long.
The senior veterans alone include Ramesh Chennithala, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, Sunny Joseph, K. Muraleedharan, A.P. Anil Kumar and N. Sakthan, all heavyweights with administrative experience and strong factional backing.
Then comes the ambitious younger and middle-generation bloc comprising I.C. Balakrishnan, M. Vincent, Roji M. John, P. C. Vishnunath, T.G. Vinod, Mathew Kuzhalnadan, V.T. Balram, Chandy Oommen, and M. Liju, all hoping that the generational shift symbolised by Satheesan’s elevation will also open cabinet doors for them.
Women legislators, too, are staking claim, with Uma Thomas, Shanimol Usman, and Bindu Krishna emerging as strong contenders.
Meanwhile, political corridors in Thiruvananthapuram and Delhi are buzzing with hectic lobbying.
Sources say aspirants have already begun reaching out to influential community organisations, religious leaders, and pressure groups in a bid to strengthen their case before the party leadership.
With Monday officially announced for the swearing-in ceremony, time is rapidly running out.
The Congress leadership’s immediate task will be to first settle the delicate power-sharing formula with the UDF partners
Only after that, when the arithmetic is finalised, will the party know exactly how many coveted berths remain available for its own restless aspirants.
Till then, the smiles may continue in public, but behind closed doors, Congress politics has already entered full negotiation mode.
(IANS)
