Congress names VD Satheesan as next Kerala CM after days of suspense

VD Satheesan was elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) on Thursday, clearing the way for him to become the next chief minister of Kerala.

After more than 10 days of waiting following the Assembly election results, the Congress officially announced Satheesan’s selection at a press conference. The announcement was made by AICC General Secretary Deepa Dasmunsi in the presence of senior Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken, and Mukul Wasnik.

The decision was taken after a meeting of the party’s newly elected MLAs at the KPCC headquarters.

Who is VD Satheesan?

Vadassery Damodaran Satheesan is an MLA from the North Paravur constituency. Hailing from Nettoor in Ernakulam district, VD Satheesan’s early grounding in politics came through campus activism at S H College, Thevara, and later at Mahatma Gandhi University, where he held key student leadership roles.

A practising lawyer at the Kerala High Court, Satheesan began his electoral journey from the Paravur Assembly constituency in the mid-1990s with a defeat. In his subsequent attempt, he secured a convincing victory and went on to retain the seat repeatedly.

A staunch loyalist of former CM K Karunakaran, Satheesan has since won five consecutive Assembly elections from Paravur in 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, and 2021, marking more than 25 years in legislative politics.

In the 2026 polls, he won by a margin of 20,600 votes, underlining his continued electoral strength.

Within the Congress, he has held several organisational roles, including AICC secretary and KPCC vice-president.

A high-profile political exchange with former Kerala Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac over inter-state lotteries further enhanced his standing as a policy-oriented leader.

During the Congress-led UDF government a decade ago, he was among a group of six legislators informally known as the “Green MLAs” or “Haritha MLAs”, who backed the implementation of the Madhav Gadgil Committee recommendations aimed at protecting the Western Ghats while cautioning against dilution of environmental safeguards.

The turning point in his political career came in 2021, when a leadership reset in the state Congress following the UDF’s Assembly election setback led to his appointment as Leader of the Opposition.

Under his leadership, the UDF recorded notable electoral gains, including victories in five bypolls and a dominant performance in the Lok Sabha elections in Kerala.

What were the Kerala Assembly election results?

The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) register a thumping victory in the recently concluded Assembly polls, winning 98 seats in the 140-member Assembly. The Congress emerged as the single-largest party with 63 seats. Among UDF allies, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) won 22, Kerala Congress (KEC) bagged 7, and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) secured 3 seats.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), won 26 seats, while the Communist Party of India (CPI) secured eight.