Soon after VD Satheesan was sworn in as Kerala's 13th chief minister, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi posted a message on X that ran to about six sentences, and mentioned two people by name.Kerala's new CM VD Satheesan (right) with Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi during the swearing-in of the Congress-led UDF government in Thiruvananthapuram. (Video grab: YT/@IndianNationalCongress)“Warm congratulations to VD Satheesan ji and the entire cabinet, who will now represent the voice of every Keralite,” Gandhi wrote. “Thanks to KC Venugopal ji, who led this campaign from the frontlines,” he added. Satheesan got compliments. Venugopal got gratitude. The photo collage in the post had Rahul hugging both, and others. The express mentions were not incidental, though.The Congress-led United Democratic Front won 102 of Kerala's 140 assembly seats in the April 9 election, results for which came on May 4. The Congress alone won 63 seats. The Left Democratic Front, which had held power for a decade, was reduced to 35. The BJP won three.What followed was 10 days during which no chief minister was named by the Congress.How CM race panned outKC Venugopal, the party's national general secretary (organisation) and Lok Sabha MP from Alappuzha in Kerala, was a frontrunner as the race began with three contenders, the other two being Satheesan and Ramesh Chennithala.At one point, seven of 10 senior Kerala Congress leaders consulted by the party high command, meaning the Gandhi family and president Mallikarjun Kharge, backed Venugopal. Kharge and Rahul Gandhi held the final call.On May 15, the party announced Satheesan, Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing assembly, as its choice. This, after a half-and-half power-sharing arrangement for the CM's post between Venugopal and Satheesan was floated and rejected, HT has reported. The party was wary of such an arrangement becoming a chief distraction like in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.No deputy CMs have been announced for the new Kerala government so far. Ramesh Chennithala is part of Satheesan's cabinet.The weeks between the result and the swearing-in produced visible public friction too. Supporters of rival leaders took to the streets across districts. Posters were pulled down. The Congress leadership had to manage internal dissent while simultaneously negotiating with coalition partners over cabinet seats.‘Party is everything’Satheesan met Venugopal on May 15, after the CM announcement — their first meeting since the decision was made.The meeting lasted 20 minutes; Venugopal said after it, “The party is everything. Questions regarding the chief minister's post are no longer relevant.”The 21-member cabinet sworn in on Monday has 12 Congress ministers including the CM, five from the Indian Union Muslim League, and one each from Kerala Congress (Joseph), CMP, and RSP. Reports said Venugopal has had a major say in selection of ministers.Satheesan, asked about this, said, “What group is there in the list? No Congress leader influenced any person. The first list was prepared in just 10 minutes. Later discussions were held considering various factors.”Venugopal was present at the swearing-in ceremony at Central Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday morning. So were Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi, and the CMs of Congress-ruled Karnataka, Telangana, and Himachal Pradesh.Earlier in the day, Venugopal was at Thiruvananthapuram airport to receive the visiting dignitaries from Delhi, in a visible act of institutional loyalty from a man who, days earlier, was reportedly backed by majority of the MLAs for the CM's post. Satheesan, however, was picked owing to his grassroots popularity.Venugopal, who's been in central politics mainly for the past two decades after multiple terms in the Kerala assembly, was asked by reporters how things stood now.“Everything is alright,” he said.When the announcement was made on May 14, he had said this on whether he was pained at not being selected: “The party is ultimate for me. I will be pained if my party is pained.”On stage after taking oath, Satheesan hugged Rahul Gandhi, then Ramesh Chennithala, the other man who did not get the post. He shook hands with others too.Satheesan's first order as CM was to declare free bus travel for women on state buses, which was one of the five guarantees Rahul Gandhi had announced at the launch of the UDF's election campaign in March.