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NEW DELHI: India’s main opposition party Congress named the chief minister for the southern state of Kerala on Thursday, after a rare decisive election victory.
The Congress party, led by Rahul Gandhi, was a dominant force for decades — but has dramatically lost ground to the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and now directly controls just four states.
The win was the lone bright spot for Congress in the state elections held in April and May, which saw Modi’s BJP consolidate its dominance after setbacks in the 2024 national parliamentary election.
Congress lawmakers chose 61-year-old veteran leader V.D. Satheesan to lead the relatively prosperous state of approximately 36 million people, state party leader Deepa Dasmunshi told reporters in New Delhi.
