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Congress MLA-elect Chandy Oommen on Thursday said the party leadership would take the "right decision" regarding the Chief Ministerial face in Keralam following consultations with newly elected MLAs during the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting in Thiruvananthapuram.
Speaking to reporters after attending the CLP meeting held at the Keralam Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office, Chandy Oommen, the son of late Chief Minister Oommen Chandy refrained from publicly commenting on leadership preferences and said he had already conveyed his views to the party leadership. "I have said to the party leadership. I don't want to comment in public. My leadership will decide at the right time," Oommen, who secured a landslide victory, defeating CPI(M)'s K M Radhakrishnan by a huge margin of more than 52,000 votes in the Assembly elections. Referring to the Congress party's internal process for selecting the CLP leader, he said the organisation follows a standard operating procedure after election victories. "Congress has an SOP. We are MLAs elected by the people of Kerala. We have given our opinions, and based on them the party will take the right decision," he added. The CLP meeting gained significance as the Congress high command initiated discussions on government formation and leadership selection after the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) secured a decisive victory in the Keralam Assembly elections. Senior Congress leaders and AICC observers Ajay Maken and Mukul Wasnik who arrived at the KPCC office in Thiruvananthapuram earlier in the day participated in the consultations. Speaking to reporters, Ajay Maken said the observers were in Keralam to understand the views of the newly elected MLAs. "We have come here to attend the CLP meeting. Let us see what the MLAs want," Maken said. Senior Keralam Congress leaders, including VD Satheesan, K Suresh and Deepa Dasmunshi, also met the observers ahead of the meeting. Congress MP K Suresh described the appointment of observers as a routine process followed by the Congress high command after elections and said their report would help the leadership arrive at a final decision. The Congress-led UDF won 102 seats in the 140-member Keralam Assembly, ending a decade-long rule of the Left Democratic Front (LDF). Congress emerged as the single-largest party in the alliance with 63 seats, while its ally, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), secured 22 seats. (ANI)
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