The new KPCC president will be declared soon, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has said. Addressing the media here after meeting Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday, he said he had expressed his readiness to step down as KPCC president as he was already the home minister.

He said he along with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy  had requested the high command to declare the name of the KPCC president before the January 17 AICC conference.

Discussions to select the new KPCC president is going on in New Delhi and the decision would most probably come by evening. Chandy and Chennithala had reached Delhi to take part in the discussions.

The Congress party had been delaying the selection of KPCC chief for some reason or other. Ever since the anointment of former KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala as the home minister, finding a right person to take over the party mantle in the State seemed a real challenge for the party .

State leadership of the party is known to be in favour of Speaker G Karthikeyan. But the name of senior Congress leader V M Sudheeran is also much talked about. The high command also has special interest in him as he has kept away from any kind of groupism within the party. He also doesn’t show any affinity towards any group.   

However, State leadership’s stand in Sudheeran’s case is yet to be made clear. Many leaders have vouched for Sudheeran and of the lot, it was T N Prathapan who had first wrote to the high command, suggesting Sudheeran’s name for the KPCC president’s post, and many other MLAs followed suit.   

Though nobody is against Karthikeyan becoming the president, those who speak up for Sudheeran feel the latter’s elevation as the president would help the Congress in the coming Lok Sabha election. But everything will depend upon the name put forward by the chief minister and the home minister as the high command doesn’t want to see groupism worsening again in the party. However, Defence Minister A K Antony’s opinion will also be considered with due importance.    
 
Meanwhile, Congress president Rahul Gandhi hopes to bring youth leaders to the KPCC president’s position. In that case he would suggest V D Satheeshan’s name. Other names suggested include Central Minister Mullappally Ramachandran and K Sudhakaran.