Uncertainty continued to loom over the Congress’s Chief Minister pick for Kerala, with the party’s high command yet to take a final call following marathon discussions with the State leadership in New Delhi on Saturday (May, 9, 2026).

The delay has raised questions about whether the All India Congress Committee’s (AICC) attempt to reach a middle ground between opposing factions has flatlined, at least temporarily. 

Senior Congress leaders in Kerala said that the outcome of Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi’s closed-door talks with Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan and senior leader Ramesh Chennithala — the two top contenders for the top post — remained unclear as of Sunday (May 10). AICC general secretary K. C. Venugopal and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Sunny Joseph, the MLA-designate, were also part of the discussions. 

Party leaders claimed the KPCC was yet to receive any definitive word from the high command on the contentious Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leadership question, except a stringent direction to reduce public posturing and social media sabre-rattling over what has emerged as an acrimonious three-way leadership tussle.

The contest has threatened to further deepen the factional fault lines within the party’s provincial unit after the United Democratic Front’s (UDF) win. 

A KPCC insider said the AICC had taken strong exception to what it perceived as concerted attempts by rival factions to strong-arm the high command into settling the leadership issue on their terms. 

Seemingly in deference to the AICC’s directive, party workers owing allegiance to different factions took down some of the hoardings and posters endorsing their favoured Chief Ministerial candidates, which had been prominently displayed in front of party offices. 

However, the skirmish over Congress’ three Chief Minister probables continued to rage on social media and showed scant signs of abating. Senior leaders, including K. C. Joseph, have complained to the KPCC that their names were being inadvertently drawn into what seemed to be an untamable internecine feud on social media by “factional fighters” who have created fake accounts to lobby for their respective leaders.