Oommen Chandy is new chief minister of Kerala

It wasn't dark horse and Sonia Gandhi favourite K.V. Thomas after all but Oommen Chandy who emerged from the long shadow cast by his friend and former chief minister A.K. Antony yesterday when he was elected the new Chief Minister of Kerala.

His only rival Vakkom Purushothaman withdrew from the race despite the best efforts of Antony rival K. Karunakaran to scupper Chandy's chances.

Chandy, the convenor of the ruling UDF government in Kerala was elected unanimously by the Congress Legislature Party leader in Kerala last night after hours of negotiations between Kerala state's deeply divided Congress MLAs at meetings overseen by senior Congress leaders Pranab Mukherjee and Margaret Alva.

The two are in charge of Kerala at the All India Congress Committee. They arrived from Delhi yesterday in a bid to evolve a consensus on Antony's successor after the beleagured chief minister submitted his resignation in a shock move late on Sunday night.

Chandy, swung the support of the 30 man 'A' faction of which he is a part. But significantly he also had the backing of the two other factions led by Ranmesh Chennithala, a senior Congress leader and G.Karthikeyan.

Former chief minister Karunakaran resisted the nomination of Chandy as chief minister, who is seen as an Antony man. His nom inee, assembly speaker Vakkom Purushothaman is known for his authoritarian style of functioning and has little support beyond the 30 man strong "I' faction that owes allegiance to Karunakaran.

"There's nothing wrong in the Speaker becoming the Chief Minister," maintained Karunakaran, whose bitter feud with Antony led to the party's most humiliating electoral defeat in Kerala in the last Lok Sabha elections when it did not win a single seat.

Sonia as party chief is reportedly miffed with Karunakaran, although he was clearly taken by surprise by Antony's resignation. The strongman is reported to have failed to arrive at the airport despite being invited to meet Sonia. Yesterday however he tried assidously to play the Ezhava card – Sonia was in the Kerala capital the day before to attend a SNDP function – but even that failed to win the other three factions over.

Analysts say that Chandy's appointment is unlikely to buy peace and Chandy is certain to face testing times as Antony is seen to have won this round over Karunakaran.

Chennithala said he hopes it will be different. "Every Congress leader in the state has learnt the lesson from the parliamentary elections, now we have to get together and stick together," he said.

Oommen Chandy, who has won from Puthupalli assembly seat eight times and was convenor of Kerala's UDF government, is seen as a consensus man.

Having been involved in students' politics, Chandy joined the Congress in 1970 and was elected MLA the same year. In 1977-78, Chandy was the Labour Minister in Antony's cabinet. In 1981-82 Karunakaran made him the Home Minister, and again in 1991 Karunakaran made him the Finance Minister. Since then he has been the UDF Convenor and heads many trade unions.


EGO CLASH

Karunakaran jubilant

In the decades-long battle of egos between Congress stalwarts A.K. Antony and K. Karunakaran, even an occasion like stepping down from office by one of them is not a time to cease fire.

The long-standing rivalry was continued yesterday by Karunakaran who said he was happy that Antony had finally stepped down.

Karunakaran has been Antony's most vehement critic since the latter took over as CM in May 2001, prompting political observers to dub him the real opposition leader in Kerala.

The former chief minister said he would have left the Congress if Antony had not quit.

His house here was bustling with activity as several legislators owing allegiance to him came to meet him.

Antony, meanwhile, said he was planning to continue in Kerala. Asked whether he would move to Delhi, the caretaker chief minister said "My primary area of work is Kerala. It is Kerala and its people for me."

Antony participated in the Chatayam function at Sivagiri, where he politely reminded a 'swami' who addressed him as chief minister that he no longer held the post. He went on to request the same love from everyone in future.