Sonia Gandhi to visit Kerala Tuesday

Congress president Sonia Gandhi will arrive here Tuesday on a short visit during which she will address a meeting of leaders and office bearers of the party, state Congress president V.M. Sudheeran said Monday.

This will be her first visit to the state since the Lok Sabha polls in which the Congress had managed to win eight of the 16 seats it contested in Kerala even as it was routed in the rest of the country. Its allies had won all the four seats they contested.

After Karnataka with nine seats, Kerala comes second in the Congress party's overall tally of 44 seats. "She will have no personal interaction with the state party leaders. Instead she will address a meeting of invited leaders and office bearers of our party for about 45 minutes Tuesday morning. After this she will inaugurate the annual meeting of the state-run Kudumbashree women's empowerment programme and then return," Sudheeran told the media here.

After the Congress leader's visit, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is expected to undertake a cabinet re-jig which he had announced in March but which had got delayed due to politicking in the party.

As Kerala Assembly speaker G. Karthikeyan has already expressed his willingness to quit his post, a new speaker will also be named in the coming days.