A natural succession in Cong.

Ramesh Chennithala’s election as Congress Legislature Party leader and his automatic elevation to the position of Leader of the Opposition represent a natural change of guard in the Congress in several ways.

Chennithala, 59, has wound his way up the party hierarchy after cutting his teeth in student politics in the early eighties. Hitching his political career to the fortunes of the late K. Karunakaran, Mr. Chennithala’s career graph has been one of natural progress, beginning from KSU State president to National Students’ Union of India president, and later, All India Youth Congress president. In between, he became a Minister in the K. Karunakaran Cabinet in 1984 at a young age of 26. After this, came his long stint as Member of Parliament, representing Kottayam and Mavelikkara at various stages.

Killer instinct

The competitive spirit with which he carved out a political career stood him in good stead when he fell out with his mentor to form the reformist group that later emerged as the third group in the Congress. Mr. Chennithala, however, got his first opening in the State only after the split in 2005 when he became KPCC president. He had the rare honour of being KPCC chief for three successive terms, during which, along with Oommen Chandy, he made an all-out effort to rebuild the party from a major setback caused by the split.

Through sheer hard work, he was able to regroup all former Karunakaran supporters to form a formidable faction. Mr. Chennithala was made Home Minister in 2014 as part of the party’s efforts to correct its social imbalance. Significantly, Mr. Chennithala has wrested the leadership of the Congress Legislature Party from the Antony faction that dominated it for the last 20 years.

He will have the difficult task of carrying along ambitious coalition partners who could test his patience and political acumen. He will have the hands-on task to keep the coalition intact, keeping in mind the contemporary political undercurrents that were seen in the Assembly election, particularly the BJP’s advent.

Chennithala has the difficult task of carrying along ambitious coalition partners