Thiruvananthapuram : There is a flurry of activity inside Congress Group camps as the legislative party members prepare to meet on Thursday to finalise who the next Opposition Leader would be. Congress circles are looking to see if Ramesh Chennithala will continue with the post or get replaced by VD Satheeshan. According to sources, Mallika Arjun Kharge and V Vaithalingam will arrive at KPCC office 11 am Thursday, where they will meet with MLAs to take first hand stock of affairs on behalf of the High Command.
The two High Command representatives will hold one-to-one meeting with MLAs to gauge individual opinion. Weightage will be given to views from AK Antony and KC Venugopal and the final decision will take into account all factors combined.
“I” Group enjoys clear upper-hand. Both Ramesh Chennithala and VD Satheeshan belong to “I” Group. Therefore “A” Group is looking to see which way the majority MLAs from “I” Group MLAs will sway to this time. Oomen Chandy is of the view that Chennithala may be allowed to continue and, divisions being deep inside “I” Group on the topic, Chennithala looks to retain the post with support from “A” Group. Even so, if KC Venugopal throws his weight around, the post could swing in favour of VD Satheeshan.
