Cong finalises plan to win over 100 seats in Assembly at 2-day leaders meet

The Congress unit in Kerala put up a united front and expressed confidence that the UDF will win the upcoming Assembly elections with over 100 seats at the end of a two-day leadership conference in Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad on Monday.

The conference, titled ‘Lakshya 2026’, featured a galaxy of around 150 state and district leaders of the party who had come together to strategise and create action plan for the upcoming Assembly elections. The two-day leadership camp was attended by AICC general secretaries Deepa Das Munshi, KC Venugopal, state president Sunny Joseph, leader of opposition VD Satheesan, former LoP Ramesh Chennithala, KPCC executive members, MPs, MLAs and district leaders.

Even Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor, who was at odds with a section of the state leadership over his reported comments and praise of the BJP government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, actively took part in the proceedings, signalling that he would play a key role in the 2026 Assembly election campaign.

“Who said that I broke the party’s line? I always believed the party stood with me. On basic issues, there have never been any difference of opinion. In majority of issues, my view and the party’s view remained the same,” Tharoor told reporters after the conference.

Election strategist Sunil Kanugolu, who had played a key role in the successful Congress campaign in Karnataka in 2023, is learnt to have presented a report on the party’s chances in Kerala at the Lakshya conference, including micro-level details on the constituencies where it holds the upper edge currently and others where it will need to galvanise more energy and coordination to pull off a victory.

Top Congress leaders also deliberated on the issues that the UDF will highlight in its campaign to intensify the anti-incumbency sentiments on the ground against the Pinarayi Vijayan-led dispensation. Such issues included the sensational revelations around the theft of gold assets at the Sabarimala temple, price rise, high inflation, joblessness and a sense of administrative paralysis, the leaders indicated.

“On January 20, we will hold an Assembly march in Thiruvananthapuram and on January 23, we will hold protest marches in all 14 districts demanding a transparent, strong probe into the Sabarimala gold theft case,” said Sunny Joseph, KPCC president.

The party is also planning a statewide yatra in February under the leadership of VD Satheesan to spread word about its positions on several issues that affect the public.

At the end of the two-day conference, Satheesan, in his address, reiterated that the UDF would attract constituents from the LDF and the NDA in the period before the Assembly elections and that it has turned into a ‘broader, political platform’, not just a coalition of parties.

“In 2016 and 2021, those who were not with us are with us today. Hundreds of people and outfits who believed in the previous decades that the LDF was the ‘ideal choice’ for the betterment of basic life conditions are with the UDF platform today. Today, they harbour hopes of unseating this government. Because, they (LDF) today are the extreme right-wing and we are the Nehruvian Left. Today, the UDF has the base to win over a 100 seats across the state,” said Satheesan.

He also dispelled criticism that there is a fight within the Congress for the CM’s chair. “It is the CPM’s narrative. I am proud to say that there is a galaxy of leaders within Congress. We have good leaders. We are a national party and our national leadership will intervene and take the right decisions. Not a single person will cry foul. We will act as a team and respond to all such criticisms,” he added.