Congress CM War Reaches Fever Pitch With Flex Boards, Temple Offerings and Full-Page Ads Four Days Before Results

Thiruvananthapuram: With just four days to go before Kerala assembly election results are declared, the Congress party's internal battle over the Chief Minister's post has descended into an undisguised public spectacle, with rival camps deploying flex boards, newspaper advertisements, and even temple offerings in a race to stake their claim to a chair that does not yet exist.

Satheesan supporters erected flex boards in Kozhikode today — defiantly ignoring a stern warning issued by KPCC President Sunny Joseph against public factional displays and a clear signal of displeasure from the High Command — with the boards carrying the slogan "Let Satheesan lead Keralam." This came as a direct counter to anti-Satheesan and pro-Chennithala posters that had appeared in Ernakulam the previous day.

In a parallel display of competitive piety, a Youth Congress former district vice president performed a 'thulabharam' offering at a temple in Thrissur, praying for K.C. Venugopal to become Chief Minister.

Ramesh Chennithala, meanwhile, spent lavishly on a full-page advertisement in an English daily under the headline "Long March of a Congress Man" — a self-promotional exercise that promptly went viral as social media mockery. Chennithala then distanced himself from the ad entirely, attributing it to DCC General Secretary A. Prijin Babu and washing his hands of the embarrassment.

Senior leader K. Muraleedharan and others have openly ridiculed the spectacle, pointing out that the leaders are scrambling to divide a chair before the public has even delivered its verdict, and that their energies are going into PR stunts rather than the concerns of ordinary people.