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D Jose in Trivandrum
Congress Working Committee member A K Antony was Tuesday unanimously elected Congress Legislature Party leader in Kerala, paving the way for him to become the state's new chief minister.
Antony's name was proposed by a Karunakaran loyalist Kadavur Sivadasan and seconded by Vakkom Purushothaman, Aryadan Mohammed and G Karthikeyan at a meeting of the newly elected Congress legislators chaired by KPCC president Thennala Balakrishna Pillai.
The election of Antony came soon after Congress President Sonia Gandhi endorsed his name when All-India Congress Committee observers Motilal Vora and Ghulam Nabi Azad contacted her in the evening.
Earlier, the CLP had unanimously adopted a resolution entrusting Sonia with the task of selecting the party's leader and thereby the chief minister of Kerala.
Senior Congress politician K Karunakaran cleared the way for his arch rival's selection as chief minister of Kerala by opting out of the race.
The 83-year-old politician made his position in favour of Antony clear while talking to reporters in Thrissur. He pointed out that he had supported Antony's candidature before the election.
Karunakaran ruled out the possibility of picking up anybody from outside the United Democratic Front Legislature Party for ministerial berths, thus precluding the possibility of his daughter Padmaja Venugopal being inducted into the government.
But he gave sufficient hints that he was looking for the elevation of his son, K Muralidharan, as Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president.
Replying to a volley of questions on the subject, Karunakaran said he was hopeful that Sonia would make a reshuffle in the KPCC as per the assurance given to him.
He refused to divulge details of the assurance, saying these were not matters to be discussed with journalists.
Earlier, Vora and Azad mobilised support from the Congress legislators for selecting Antony as chief minister.
Antony, a member of the Congress Working Committee, sailed smoothly with the support of 29 MLAs of his faction, three of the group led by G Karthikeyan and two of the group led by Vayalar Ravi. He got the support of neutral MLAs, K K Nair and T H Mustafa.
The Karunakaran group has the support of only 26 of the 62 legislators in Kerala.
Besides this, most of other constituents of the UDF, who have a total of 37 legislators, also favour Antony.
The new UDF government will assume office by Thursday evening.
(With inputs from PTI)
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