UDF leadership meeting to lay out the contours of the next Kerala cabinet gets underway

The United Democratic Front (UDF)’s top leadership meeting at the Cantonment House in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday (May 15, 2026) will likely lay out the contours of the next Kerala cabinet. 

The UDF is seeking to turn the page on the uncertainty that gripped the alliance following the Congress’s ten-day delay in choosing its Chief Ministerial candidate by fast-tracking the government formation process. 

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According to Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) insiders privy to the government formation process, the Chief Minister-designate V.D. Satheesan will likely invite senior leader Ramesh Chennithala to join the cabinet. 

They said the high command had tasked Mr Satheesan to send a message of unity to the rank and file by extending an olive branch to Mr Chennithala, who was in the reckoning for the Chief Minister’s post, along with All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary, K. C. Venugopal.

Congress sources said the matrix for government formation seemed centred on the political calculus that the UDF government should, ideally, be an expansive tent that accommodates community, caste and age demographics. Regional representation would also factor into the government formation. 

Also Read | New factional battle lines emerge in Congress hours after nomination of Kerala CM 

They said the UDF might borrow a page from the 2011 Oommen Chandy government. “If so, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) might get five cabinet posts. The UDF will also likely take a call on portfolios”, he said. 

Sources said the Congress would likely retain 11 cabinet posts, including that of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker. The UDF would also reportedly focus on accommodating Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] dissidents, G Sudhakaran, T K Govindan, and V Kunhikrishnan, possibly offering them key roles to induce further high-profile defections from the Left Democratic Front (UDF). 

UDF insiders said the Kerala Congress (Joseph), with seven MLA-designates in its kitty, has demanded two cabinet berths. The Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), with two designated MLAs, has staked a claim to a single cabinet post. “Lesser parties in the UDF alliance with one seat in the Assembly might have to settle for a term-sharing formula with each other”, a KPCC office bearer said. 

Meanwhile, a UDF insider said, the alliance would attempt to steer clear of any dispute concerning cabinet portfolios, including IUML’s demand for the Education Ministry. The RSP, for one, he said, has reportedly demanded Fisheries and Tourism, both of which are supposedly coveted by the Congress. Notably, the Nair Service Society (NSS) general secretary, G Sukumaran Nair, had aired scepticism on Thursday (May 14) about whether the IUML would meet the parameters of “social justice” if vested with the education portfolio.