May 11, 2026 12:19 pm IST

Opinion | KC Venugopal, And The Paradox Of Being The Man Rahul Can't Do Without

If KCV, Rahul's most trusted lieutenant in Delhi, ends up becoming Kerala Chief Minister, the Congress will have put its own credibility on the line in the state. But does the party care?

Rasheed Kidwai Rasheed Kidwai Columnist

Rasheed Kidwai Columnist

In the end, the Congress may choose a man who has spent years away from Kerala, mastering the politics of Delhi's closed rooms. KC Venugopal is one of the frontrunners in the Kerala Chief Minister race – the other two names in contention being VD Satheesan and Ramesh Chennithala. If he does emerge as the winner in this race, it will, on the surface, be almost a safe return: a former three-term MLA from Alappuzha, a former Kerala minister, a former state minister, will become the state's most powerful elected executive. But it would also be something more complicated. It would be the Congress high command placing its own credibility on the line, asking Kerala to accept that the man who kept the party's national machine running through years of defeat is also the man best placed to govern a state that has just removed the Left after a decade in power.

Why Many In Delhi Want KCV Gone

If 'KCV', as he is popularly called, manages to get in Samsthana Sarkkar Sirakandram (state secretariat as chief minister), there will be a clamour for his successor as general secretary in charge of organisation (GSO), the third most important post in the Congress. A section of party leaders wants Priyanka Gandhi to become GSO. If she declines, then the coveted post may go to Ajay Makan, Sachin Pilot or Mukul Wasnik. A cynical view in the Congress is that Venugopal may not want to leave his proximity to Rahul Gandhi, and thus sacrifice his chief ministerial ambition and make way for VD Satheesan and Ramesh Chennithala, staying on as the GSO, much to the chagrin of Congress leaders of various hues and shades.

The Kerala mandate itself for the Congress is emphatic. In the 140-member Assembly, the party has won 63 seats, the IUML 22, the Kerala Congress (KEC) seven, the RSP three, and Kerala Congress (Jacob) one, giving the UDF a commanding 102-seat victory. The LDF has been pushed out after 10 years in office, with the CPI(M) reduced to 26 seats and the CPI to eight. Kerala has returned to its old rhythm of alternation, but not softly; this was a corrective verdict, almost a political audit.

A Man For All Seasons

Venugopal's political career began in student and youth politics; he went on to serve as an MLA from 1996 to 2009, became Kerala's Tourism and Devaswom Minister between 2004 and 2006, entered the Lok Sabha in 2009, was re-elected in 2014, served as Union Minister of State for Power and Civil Aviation, entered the Rajya Sabha in 2020, returned to the Lok Sabha in 2024, and became chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee. His career has

moved through every chamber of Congress politics: the street, the Assembly, Parliament, the Union Council of Ministers, the Rajya Sabha, the Lok Sabha, and finally the party's organisational nerve centre.

But the real Venugopal story is not told by the offices he has held. It is told by access gained. In the Congress ecosystem,........

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