The nature and scale of the administrative and political challenges to be tackled by Kerala Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan have emerged as he completes 10 days in office. At an administrative level, there are controversies over a few postings including that of his Principal Secretary, and, even as the monsoon advances, vulnerable area mapping in Wayanad, which was the scene of the biggest landslides in the State in 2024, is yet to be completed. The State is also sitting on a double-edged sword on the Munambam land dispute, after the Waqf Board registered the land in the Central government’s Umeed portal.

The controversy over the Munambam land is that, many, including senior leaders of the Congress, are convinced that it is not Waqf property, even though the Waqf Board, in 2019, had entered the 404-acre parcel into the Waqf register.

The Christian-dominated Munambam land protection council has stated that it will approach the Chief Minister to dismiss the current Waqf Board. (In any case, the board will be revamped with the change of government.)

Essentially, the controversy is about ownership of this large piece of land in the Chief Minister’s home district of Ernakulam. About 600 Christian families live on the land and have legal documents to prove the purchase of the land. This is one of the most complicated land issues.

Munambam, which has seen many agitations and counter-agitations, will be one of the major issues that Satheesan will have to tackle, keeping in mind that the Christian residents of the area look to him for deliverance, and the fact that the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) is a major partner in the United Democratic Front (UDF) government. The IUML has not openly sided with the Waqf office bearers so far.

But the first controversy soon after Satheesan took charge was the appointment of State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Rathan U. Kelkar as Secretary to the Chief Minister. The opposition jumped on this and questioned if the posting was in lieu of favours that the 2003 batch officer had allegedly extended during the election.

In West Bengal, State CEO Manoj Agarwal was appointed Chief Secretary soon after the BJP won the Assembly election. In fact, two senior officers who manned the polls are now part of the new Chief Minister’s team. On May 12, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had shared a news item on X.com and said in Hindi: “In the BJP—EC’s ‘Thieves Market’—the bigger the theft, the bigger the reward.” In is view, the posting was because of the officers favoured the BJP during the elections.

On May 25, speaking to mediapersons, Kerala BJP MLA V. Muraleedharan asked: “Why does Congress have two different parameters for two States? If the Election Commissioner of West Bengal is appointed as the Chief Secretary, then there are allegations. But in Kerala [where the same thing has taken place], there are no allegations... Either both are wrong or both are okay. So, Rahul Gandhi should apologise.”

CPI(M) Kerala secretary M.V. Govindan asked why the Congress was unable maintain the same stand in both Kerala and West Bengal. He hinted that there was perhaps a deal behind the positing, and said that details about this “deal” would emerge soon. The CPI(M) demanded a clarification from Rahul Gandhi on his comment.

Satheesan has said that the West Bengal case was quite different from that of Kerala. Speaking to mediapersons, he said: “He was the Chief Electoral Officer here... He is a very good and efficient officer. There is no violation of the rules of procedure here.”

He added that the CEO was selected by the Election Commission of India (ECI) from a list of three Kerala cadre IAS officers. “Who suggested his name in the list of three officers? It was the LDF [Left Democratic Front],” he said.

Raging issues

The other issue that Satheesan needs to attend to relates to the restlessness of his own party men over police high-handedness. Congress leaders are calling for action against policemen who manhandled them during agitations when the LDF was in power. In the case of the 2023 attack on youth Congress workers during the Nava Kerala Sadas, a probe by the Special Investigation Team has concluded that a senior police officer had altered the case diary and investigation report prepared earlier. This is a serious charge and the danger in this case is for the LDF, which was in power at that time.

Congress leaders have accused ADGP (Law and Order) M.R. Ajith Kumar of tampering with the case diary and alleged that a senior officer of his rank would not have done it without express orders from the Chief Minister’s office.

This case has the potential to implicate former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s political secretary. Given this matrix, the Congress is likely to hold back on this issue and unleash it when the party is on the back foot or closer to an event such as a byelection.

Soon after it came to power, the UDF government had announced that would drop cases related to the protests against the Silver Line high-speed rail project. This has given hope to those who are now stuck in cases from the Vizhinjam port and Sabarimala agitations. The Congress was also part of those protests.

While the LDF government had withdrawn some of the cases in the Vizhinjam agitation, it had refused to pardon those who had indulged in destruction of property and arson. In an incident in 2022, protestors attacked the Vizhinjam police station and held police personnel hostage. In the case of the Sabarimala agitation, a BJP affiliated organisation named Sabarimala Karma Samiti had spearheaded the agitation against women of menstruating age entering the temple. About 10,000 cases were filed. Most of the cases are now in the courts. The UDF government has stated that it will have to examine all cases on individual merits.

The next president of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) will be elected soon. Unless it is a person that Satheesan can get along with, there will be serious friction between the government and the party, as was seen in the past. The current PCC president, Sunny Joseph, who is now a Minister, will resign from his post shortly.

The All India Congress Committee (AICC) will have a deciding role in the matter, which means that AICC secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal will have a say in who becomes the PCC chief. Two other posts have to also be filled—that of two working presidents. With Youth Congress president O.J. Janeesh becoming a Minister, the AICC has to find a suitable replacement for him too. Two considerations will guide the AICC boss on the appointments: one, the party and the government should not end up being at loggerheads as in the past and two, there should be no scandals like the one involving Rahul Mamkootathil, the former MLA and youth leader, who was expelled from the party in 2025 after several women accused him of sexual misconduct and harassment.

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