Ramesh Chennithala likely to be elevated in Congress

Thiruvananthapuram, July 21 Miffed at not being considered for a second term as the Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, Congress veteran Ramesh Chennithala might get an accommodation in a top post in the party.

The 65-year-old Congress veteran rose through the student movement and by now has had four terms in the Lok Sabha and is currently into his fourth term as a legislator.

In the April 6 Assembly polls, which he led as the Leader of Opposition and was expecting to regain power, the Congress-led UDF suffered a humiliating defeat and Pinarayi Vijayan retained power.

Chennithala was not considered for the post of the Leader of Opposition, instead it went to V.D. Satheesan.

With the talks of a possible revamp in the Congress, as sources in the know of things say there may be four new Working President's and one among them will go to Chennithala.

"He has already had one stint as a Congress Working Committee member besides being a general secretary in the past and hence given his seniority in the party and in the present scheme of things, to placate him, he will get a post which would be above the post of party general secretary . Perhaps it could be even a vice-president post," said a party source, who did not wish to be identified.

Chennithala first wrote into record books when at the young age of 28 he was made a State Minister by the then Chief Minister K. Karunakaran (1982-87).

He also had a nine-year stint as the president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee starting from 2005, after which he became the State Home Minister in the Oommen Chandy cabinet in 2014.