Often called the grand old party, the Congress has this unique ability—to turn simple manageable situations into prolonged, complicated crises. Even as politically complex states such as West Bengal and Tamil Nadu have settled their leadership questions after the 2026 Assembly elections, the Congress-led UDF in Kerala was still struggling to decide its chief ministerial face at the time of filing this report.
Political observers say the party’s recurring problem is its tendency to convert straightforward leadership decisions into drawn-out internal battles. The latest example, they point out, is Karnataka, where speculation over a possible leadership change involving Siddaramaiah and D. K. Shivakumar continues to fester, dominating political discourse in the state. Similar unresolved issues in the past cost the party heavily in Rajasthan, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.
Critics say that the Congress high command’s “indecisiveness or creating issues like in Karnataka often creates power vacuums and fuels factionalism. The leadership struggling to manage transitions smoothly, leads to disagreements snowballing into major political confrontations.”
In Kerala, the choice was initially expected to be between senior leader Ramesh Chennithala and Leader of Opposition V. D. Satheesan, who has aggressively taken on the ruling LDF over the past five years. However, the emergence of K. C. Venugopal as a contender added to the situation.
Venugopal is said to be enjoying support among several MLAs because of his influential role in ticket distribution ahead of the elections. At the same time, there is speculation within party circles that sections of the central leadership may prefer moving him out of Delhi and into state politics. The question, however, is whether such a move can come at the expense of Kerala’s local leadership balance. Venugopal is considered close to Rahul Gandhi.
The challenge for Congress is sharper today because the party no longer holds power at the Centre. In earlier decades, leadership transitions in Kerala were often balanced by accommodating senior leaders in the Union government. When veteran leader K. Karunakaran stepped aside for A.K.Antony, he was accommodated in the Union Cabinet. Likewise, Antony later moved to national politics when Oommen Chandy took charge in the state.
Without similar options now available, the Kerala leadership contest has become far more delicate. Unlike the BJP, where the central leadership can impose choices with relative ease, the Congress must navigate competing regional interests and internal equations more cautiously. Will the Kerala’ crisis—that again underlines the party’s enduring difficulty in settling leadership questions before they evolve into larger organisational crises—become one more such example.