Antony elected as Chief Minister of Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, May 15: CWC member, A K Antony was on Tuesday unanimously elected the Congress Legislature Party leader in Kerala catapulting him as the state's new Chief Minister.

Antony's name was proposed by a Karunakaran loyalist, Kadavur Sivadasan, and seconded by Vakkom Purushothaman, Aryadan Mohammed and G Karthikeyan at a meeting of the newly elected Congress MLAs chaired by KPCC president Thennala Balakrishna Pillai.

The election of Antony came soon after Congress president Sonia Gandhi endorsed his name when AICC observers Ghulam Nabi Azad and Motilal Vohra contacted her on Tuesday evening.

Earlier the CLP had unanimously adopted a resolution entrusting Sonia Gandhi with task of selecting the party's leader and thereby the Chief Minister of Kerala.

The election of Antony was smooth as party veteran K Karunakaran, who rebelled during the seat sharing exercise and quit from the CWC, had already stated that he was not in the race for Chief Ministership. (PTI)