Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF)’s government-formation talks, which riveted public attention on Sunday (May 17, 2026), closely resembled a roller-coaster political ride.

Chief Minister-designate V.D. Satheesan spent the better part of the hectic, somewhat chaotic day flitting between leaders of different Congress factions vying for Cabinet posts for their loyalists and allies aspiring to secure the maximum number of ministerial berths.

Simultaneously, media speculation about prospective Ministers and their respective portfolios reached a feverish pitch, adding to the anticipation, as television channels aired interchanging chyrons about the make-up of the next government on a day when whispers in the corridors of power took the form of news.

Transactional model

The negotiations, according to UDF insiders, assumed a transactional model. Ups and downs in expectations, hesitant reconciliation with political realities, feelings of being let down, grievances about broken promises, tight turns away from adamant positions, reluctant compromises, desperate haggling, and last-minute closed-door wheeling and dealing marked the apparently vexatious Cabinet formation process.

“The outcome of the talks seemed a mixed bag of sentiments of disappointment and feelings of fulfilment for the parties involved. Politics is ultimately the art of the possible, and compromises were inevitable on all sides,” a UDF insider privy to the behind-the-scenes talks stated. 

At the outset of the negotiations, the politics of the factions appeared to play spoilsport, with Ramesh Chennithala and K.C. Venugopal, who were contenders to the Chief Minister’s post, insisting on accommodation for their loyalists. However, negotiators said, the “cloud of uncertainty passed” with factional leaders striking a detente at the Congress high command’s instance.

Lasting consensus

According to Congress leaders, the party’s national leadership, comprising All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in charge of Kerala Deepa Dasmunshi, reportedly made haste to prod the faction chiefs into a lasting consensus on Cabinet formation before the deadline for submitting the final list of Ministers to Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar expired. 

Congress insiders said the UDF spent considerable thought on how to accommodate Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] veterans and MLA-elects, including G.Sudhakaran, T.K. Govindan and V. Kunhikrishnan, who aligned with the Congress-led alliance after acrimoniously parting ways with the party.

The Congress leadership also reportedly went the extra mile to placate Mani C. Kappan of the Nationalist Congress Kerala and Anoop Jacob of the Kerala Congress (Jacob) who had reportedly rejected the UDF’s request that single-legislator parties take turns in power.