Congress leadership discusses Kerala government formation; decision on Chief Minister soon

PTI, May 09, 2026, New Delhi : Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi will take the final decision on the new Kerala Chief Minister, and the name will be announced very soon, AICC general secretary in-charge of the state Deepa Dasmunshi said on Saturday.

She was addressing the media after the Congress top brass held an over three-hour meeting to discuss government formation in Kerala.

The meeting was convened by Kharge at his residence, where Rahul Gandhi, Deepa Dasmunshi, General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal, and senior Kerala leaders Ramesh Chennithala and V D Satheesan were present, besides Kerala Congress unit chief Sunny Joseph and senior observers Ajay Maken and Mukul Wasnik.

“Very soon, in due time, we will get our final decision by our high command,” Dasmunshi said on who would be the Chief Minister in Kerala.

“Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi will take the final decision,” she said when asked who in the high command would take the call.

“All Congress MLAs have signed a one-line resolution authorising the high command to make the final decision,” she said.

Referring to protests in Kerala in the last two days over the issue of the chief ministerial candidate, she said some unruly incidents had happened and they were not part of the Congress culture.

“People have given us a landslide majority and those unruly incidents are not our Congress culture. We are urging all our workers to stop this kind of activity,” she told reporters.

When pressed further about the announcement of the Chief Minister’s name, she replied, “We will have a final decision very soon.”

“23rd May is the last day. I think in due time, we will get the final decision by our high command and we are waiting for that. In due time, the due course of action will be taken. The final decision has to be taken by the high command,” she said.