Overview
- UDF partners in the Indian Union Muslim League warned that public jostling over the top job is untimely and could hurt the alliance before results on May 4.
- Supporters of V. D. Satheesan, Ramesh Chennithala and K. C. Venugopal are openly pitching their leaders for chief minister.
- Mohammed Shiyas, the Congress candidate from Kochi, posted on April 10 that the next chief minister should be from Ernakulam, then deleted it after a party rebuke.
- Ramesh Chennithala met Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on April 16, and leaders say the party’s central leadership will decide after the count.
- Congress figures cite past blowback from naming a face early, and party allies say open jockeying can sap worker morale and unsettle UDF voters.