Vadasseri Damodaran Satheesan (born 31 May 1964) is an Indian politician and lawyer who has been the Chief Minister of Kerala since 18 May 2026. A member of the Indian National Congress, he has represented Paravur in the Kerala Legislative Assembly since 2001. As Leader of the Opposition from 2021 he rebuilt the Congress-led United Democratic Front after two successive defeats and led it to a landslide in the election of April 2026.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Vadasseri Damodaran Satheesan |
| Born | 31 May 1964, Nettoor, Ernakulam district, Kerala |
| Age | 62 |
| Party | Indian National Congress |
| Office | Chief Minister of Kerala (since 18 May 2026) |
| Earlier office | Leader of the Opposition, Kerala Legislative Assembly (2021–2026) |
| Constituency | Paravur (since 2001) |
| Education | Sacred Heart College, Thevara; Rajagiri College of Social Sciences (MSW); LL.B., LL.M. |
| Spouse | Lakshmi Priya |
| Children | 1 daughter |
Early Life
Satheesan was born at Nettoor, on the southern edge of Kochi. He studied at Sacred Heart College, Thevara, took a master’s degree in social work at Rajagiri College and then degrees in law in Thiruvananthapuram. He entered politics through the Kerala Students Union, the student wing of the Congress, and was chairman of the Mahatma Gandhi University students’ union in 1986–87. He practised as an advocate in the Kerala High Court for about a decade.
Political Career
Paravur
He first contested the Paravur seat, north of Kochi and long held by the left, in 1996 and lost. He won it in 2001 and has held it at every election since, with growing margins.
Legislator
In the Assembly he made his name as a debater who came with files and figures. A public debate with the Finance Minister over the sale of lottery tickets from other states in 2010 brought him statewide attention. He was one of a small group of younger Congress legislators who took positions on the environment that sometimes went against their own government, opposing the conversion of paddy fields and a proposed airport on wetlands. He was a vice-president of the state party and chaired the Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee. Although often spoken of as ministerial material, he was never given office in the governments of 2001–06 and 2011–16.
Leader of the Opposition
After the United Democratic Front lost a second consecutive election in 2021, the party’s national leadership passed over more senior figures and named Satheesan Leader of the Opposition. He set out to change the front’s style, promising to support the government where it was right and to avoid what he called negative politics, while attacking it over the state’s debt, the SilverLine rail project and allegations involving the Chief Minister’s office.
Under him the front won a run of by-elections, took eighteen of the state’s twenty seats in the Lok Sabha election of 2024 and made large gains in the local body elections of 2025.
Chief Minister
In the Assembly election of 9 April 2026 the front won 102 of the 140 seats, the Congress alone taking 63, and the Left Democratic Front of Pinarayi Vijayan was reduced to 35. Satheesan was sworn in as the thirteenth Chief Minister of Kerala at the Central Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on 18 May 2026, with twenty ministers. He kept the finance and law portfolios himself; Ramesh Chennithala became Home Minister. The state’s finances, the cost of welfare pensions and the pace of outward migration by young people were the issues his government inherited.
Style
He is known as a wide reader who quotes poetry and economics in his speeches, and for a quick temper in debate. He has described himself as a Nehruvian and has been firm in opposing both majority and minority communalism, a stance that has at times brought criticism from community organisations.
Personal Life
He is married to Lakshmi Priya, and they have a daughter, Unnimaya. He lives at Paravur.
Featured image: V. D. Satheesan in May 2011, when he was MLA for Paravur. Photo by Fotokannan, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
